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October 22, 2014 

Anthony Foxx 

Secretary of Transportation 

US Department of Transportation 

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE 

Washington, DC 20590 

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Subject: Essential Air Service at Bradford and Franklin, Pennsylvania 

Bradford, Pennsylvania (DOT-OST-2003-14528) 

Franklin/Oil City, Pennsylvania (DOT-OST-1997-2523) 

Dear Secretary Foxx: 

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First, we want to thank you and the US Department of Transportation (DOT) for the recent order granting 

our waiver from the 1 0-enplanement rule, and allowing both Franklin's Venango County Regional Airport 

(FKL) and Bradford Regional Airport (BFD) to continue in the Essential Air Service (EAS) program. Our 

EAS contract was bundled with numerous other EAS communities in the region. On July 18, 2014, the US 

DOT made its final selections for the majority of the communities, while deferring action on behalf of BFD 

and FKL until a decision was made on the 10-enplanement rule. On September 26, 2014, the US DOT 

officially granted that waiver to BFD and FKL 

We are now approaching four weeks since the granting of the waiver. and we are still waiting for a final 

order from the US DOT selecting a carrier to serve BFD and FKL. Both communities strongly supported 

Sun Air's bid to provide service, and have already begun working with the carrier to commence 

operations as soon as possible. Without a final order selecting Sun Air, however, the airline and 

community are unable to make final preparations for service or announce a start date. After recent 

discussions with the airline, we are expecting new service to start in December 2014 or January 2015, 

assuming a final order is issued quickly. 

Typically, EAS rules dictate that the current air carrier is to be held indefinitely until a replacement carrier 

is selected and begins service. For BFD and FKL, this appears to not be the case, and we are expecting 

a hiatus in service. Silver Airways has communicated with both communities that they will cease 

operations regardless of any hold-in orders, on October 31, 2014. 

Although the community relies upon our EAS to connect our rural communities to the rest of the world, 

the larger impact of a hiatus in air service is likely to be our ability to stay in the EAS program in the 

future. The 1 0-enplanement requirement and the $200 per passenger subsidy cap will again be evaluated 

for each community for the 12-months ending September 30, 2015, and we are concerned about the 

impact of a hiatus of service. For each month that the communities go without service, it not only will 

require a higher average number of passengers in the other months to counteract the lack of service, but 

it forces our communities to spend even more time, money and effort to "win back" customers forced to 

drive to alternate airports during the time of poor service or no service at all. It is highly improbable that a 

pending hiatus in service will have no impact on passengers even after Sun Air commences service. 

In light of the above, BFD and FKL hereby respectfully request the US DOT: 

1. Expedite the decision on selecting Sun Air for the EAS contract for both BFD and FKL, so both 

the communities and Sun Air can, as expeditiously as possible, continue efforts to commence 

service to Pittsburgh International Airport. 
2. Advise what action will be taken against Silver Airways if they follow through with plans to 

suspend service on October 31, 2014 as they have communicated in direct violation of the US 

DOT order 2014-10-13 which holds the carrier in until November 14, 2014, and any subsequent 

hold-in orders that the US DOT issues until such time as a replacement carrier is selected and 

commences service. 

3. Take into account any potential service hiatus that may occur before a replacement carrier can 

start service, when evaluating BFD and FKL in regards to the 1 0-enplanement rule or $200 per 

passenger subsidy cap requirements for the year ending September 30, 2015. 

On behalf of our communities, we thank you and the US DOT in our efforts to continue EAS at BFD and 

FKL. We look forward to working together to have our service be successful. 

Sincerely, 

OCBell Alicia Dankesreiter 

Airport Manager- FKL Interim Airport Mana9er- BFD 

cc: Kevin Schlemmer, US DOT