Subject: 

From: 

0 Memorandum 

U.S. Department Of 

Transportation 

Office of the Secretary 

of TransportatiOn 

Payout procedures as a result of the temporary closure of 

Lewistown Municipal Airport (Lewistown, Montana) 

;eJ;:OST-172~ 

Dennis J. De Va' Chief 7 

EAS & Domestic Analysis, X-53 

Date: October 5, 2011 

OAAMemoNo. 

2011-53 

Reply to Brian Swanson, X-53 

Attn. of: Ext. 65392 

To: Gregory Frazier, Resource Directorate, S-3.6 

Lewistown Municipal Airport (L WT) 

The Lewistown Municipal Airport (Lewistown, Montana) provided notice to Gulfstream that it 

would close its main runway for grooving at approximately 9:00am though 6:30pm, from 

October 10,2011, through October 14,2011. Gulfstream currently provides subsidized EAS at 

Lewistown for a rate of $1,094.74 per arrival/departure. 

It has been our policy, on a case-by-case basis, to pay EAS carriers their usual subsidy rate 

when airports have been closed on the grounds that the circumstances are beyond the carriers' 

control and there are only minimal cost savings to the carriers while they lose all of the 

revenue. The carriers would only save on fuel and a portion of maintenance because they 

would not be able to tum back aircraft or lay-off personnel. Consistent with this precedent, we 

ask you to compensate Gulfstream for two more flights each day than it actually operated, 

between October 10 and 14, during the upcoming runway grooving project. 

Attachment 

cc: ML Mickey Bowman, Gulfstream 

Mr. Jerry Moline, Lewistown Municipal Airport 
Swanson, Brian (OSTI 

From: Devany, Dennis (OST) 

Sent: 

To: 

Subject: 

Sunday, September 04, 2011 9:21 AM 

Swanson, Brian (OST); Frazier, Gregory (OST) 

FW: LWT runway OCT grooving 

From: Jerry Moline [mailto:lwt@midrivers.com] 

Sent: Sat 9/3/2011 2:46 PM 

To: Devany, Dennis (OST) 

Subject: FW: LWT runway OCT grooving 

From: Nigel Davis [mailto:ndavis@m-m.net] 

Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 3:25PM 

To: lwt@midrivers.com 

Subject: FW: LWT runway OCT grooving 

Jerry, 

can you forward this to Dennis for me. 

Thanks! 

Nigel 

From: Mickey Bowman [mbowman@gulfstreamair.com] 

Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 2:04 PM 

To: Nigel Davis 

Cc: 'Phil LeFevre'; 'darmbr@gulfstreamair.com'; 'David Querio'; 'Michael Ritchey'; 'Michelle 

Adkins' 

Subject: RE: LWT runway OCT grooving 

Nigel, 

I will need another letter or note from Jerry to Dennis DeVany at the DOT notifying him of this 

plan to assure we are still able to receive our subsidy for that period. I can't seem to locate my email address for him but if you could forward I would really appreciate it. 

MB 

1 
From: Nigel Davis [mailto:ndavis@m-m.net] 

Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 3:50PM 

To: Mickey Bowman 

Subject: RE: LWT runway OCT grooving 

Hi Mickey, 

for now, could you plan to discontinue the 2 day flights in and out of Lewistown on the dates 

noted below. The morning flight can come and go, then the evening flight can come and go. We 

can work from 9:10am to 6:15pm to get the project done. 

This will occur from October 10 through 14. 

If anything changes between now and next Wednesday, I will let you know ASAP. 

Thanks again, 

Nigel 

From: Mickey Bowman [mbowman@gulfstreamair.com] 

Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 10:12 AM 

To: Nigel Davis 

Subject: RE: LWT runway OCT grooving 

When will you know, absolutely, that October 10 will be the start date? I have to file schedule 

change and get DOT to buy off and the October schedule is due to our Crew Planning 

Department by next Wednesday, Sep ih. 

From: Nigel Davis [mailto:ndavis@m-m.net] 

Sent: Friday, September 02, 201111:57 AM 

To: Mickey Bowman 

Subject: RE: LWT runway OCT grooving 

weather permitting, 5 days. 

From: Mickey Bowman [mbowman@gulfstreamair.com] 

Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 9:44AM 

To: Nigel Davis 

Cc: 'Phil LeFevre'; 'darmbr@gulfstreamair.com' 

Subject: RE: LWT runway OCT grooving 

How many days would this process entail? 

2 
From: Nigel Davis [mailto:ndavis@m-m.net] 

Sent: Friday, September 02, 201110:52 AM 

To: Mickey Bowman 

Subject: RE: LWT runway OCT grooving 

Hi Mickey, good to hear from you; 

I do have to groove the runway this fall, give you guys some safe braking action! The plan thus 

far is begin grooving on Monday October 10 (just discussed this Tuesday this week). It is possible 

to pull back the grooving equipment between flights, however, I would feel much more 

comfortable having a closed runway between your existing morning and evening flight, especially 

with some of the trouble we had with our recent phased construction (none from you guys at all, 

your team new what was going on). 

I would hope that we could generate some good publicity with Fred so passengers were fully 

aware that this is not a Gulfstream issue and is strictly a runway construction and safety issue. 

Let me know what you think. 

Nigel 

Nigel Davis 

Senior Airport Engineer 

A..·.· • ,~MORRISON ••II MAIERLE,INC. ckCINEERS SURVEYORS PLANI'>ERS SCIENTISTS 

1 Engineering Place 

Helena, MT 59602 

Main: 406.442.3050 

Direct: 406.495.3490 

Cell: 406.431.5085 

From: Mickey Bowman [mbowman@gulfstreamair.com] 

Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 7:32AM 

To: Nigel Davis 

Subject: FW: LWT runway OCT grooving 

Nigel, 

Can you confirm that we are looking at yet another outage on our usable runway in October?? 

We are desperately trying to rebuild ridership and save the city's EAS status going forward and 

these disruptions are devastating. Is there some reason the work can no be done around our 

operating schedule? 

MB 

From: Fred Lark [mailto:~ark@larkunlimited.com] 

Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 9:16AM 

To: 'Mickey Bowman' 

3 
Cc: lark@kxlo-klcm.com 

Subject: RE: LWT runway OCT grooving 

HI De Ho Mickey ..... 

Yes, I suggest you contact Jerry Moline or Nigel 

Davis(consultant engineer) .... the runway project was a huge 

success buttttt the downtime is a real problem .... 

Let's visit soon on how this should be handled via advertising 

and community news/information. 

Thanks .... 

FL© 

From: Mickey Bowman [mailto:mbowman@gulfstreamair.com] 

Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2011 3:08PM 

To: lark@larkunlimited.com 

Subject: Fw: LWT runway OCT grooving 

Fred, 

Now I'm hearing about another potential closure in Oct just as we are teying to recover 

from August! 

-----Original Message-----

From: "Michelle Adkins" <madkins@ gulfstreamair.com> 

To: "Phil LeFevre" <plefev@gulfstreamair.com>, "Mickey Bowman" 

<mbowman@ gulfstreamair.com>, 

"Michael Ritchey" <mritch@ gulfstreamair.com> 

Date: 8/30/2011 5:05:01 PM 

Subject: Re: L WT runway OCT grooving 

Hello Gentleman, 

One of the men in charge of the runway construction said today, that during the grooving in 

October, they will need to work during the day hours. He said that we will probably have to 

cancel the afternoon flights for 5 days. The first am and the last pm flights would be ok to 

operate. (This was all told to me by Kurt Erlandson, LWT Airport employee) 

I just wanted to give you a heads up. Of course, no one has specific dates or hours yet. 

Michelle Adkins 1 LWT Station Manager 1 VPAA Co. dba/Gulfstream International Alnines 

Email: madkjos@gulfstreamajr.com 

Tel: 406-708-4154 I Fax: 406-535-6460 I Cell: 406-366-3088 

-----Original Message-----

From: "Michelle Adkins" <madkins@ gulfstreamair.com> 

4 
To: "Phil LeFevre" <plefev@gulfstreamair.com>,"Mickey Bowman" 

<mbowman@ gulfstreamair.com>, "Michael Ritchey" <rnritch@ gulfstreamair.com> 

Date: Fri, 26 Aug 201114:19:18-0400 

Subject: L WT nmway OCT grooving 

Hello, 

I'm not sure who to inform of this, so I figured I would just let all of you know ... 

Jerry Moline just told me that they will be grooving the new LWT runway sometime in mid 

October. This operation should take about a week (weather permitting). He is suppose to let 

me know more as soon as they figure out a date. The new oil on the runway should be ready to 

"saw" through in 60 days. 

The current runway construction is going as scheduled and normal operations should continue as 

planned on August 30th. 

Thanks, 

Michelle Adkins I LWT Station Manager 1 VPAA Co. dba/Gulfstream International Airlines 

Email: madkins@gulfstreamair.com 

Tel: 406·708-4154 I Fax: 406-535-6460 I Cell: 406-366-3088 

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