Department of Transportation Docket Operations. M 30 West Building Ground Floor Room W12-140 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, D.C. 20590

Docket Operations Decision Makers,

We are very unhappy with the situation with our current EAS service. It was a forgone conclusion two years ago when we had to switch our EAS carrier to Gulf Stream (Silver Airways), that our ridership would fall, and we would be in jeopardy of loosing our EAS service.

We moved back to Lewistown in the summer of 2006 from Colorado. We had used the Great Lakes flights back and forth to Denver a lot. Both my husband and I traveled back and forth, and our children, who still live in Colorado, also flew back and forth frequently. During the last two years of EAS service only to Billings, we have resorted to hitching rides to Billings, and driving ourselves to Bozeman, and/or Great Falls to fly to Denver.

Just last week, I made a reservation to fly to Denver from Bozeman. The flight I chose on Frontier cost $200 less than a United flight out of Great Falls, and $125 less than a United flight out of Billings. It will cost $26 dollars extra to drive back and forth to Bozeman than to Great Falls, and I can park for free at my in-laws while I am gone. The “seasonal” service Frontier provides out of Great Falls doesn ʼ t start soon enough for me to take advantage of the hour less driving time to get there vs Bozeman.

When we had Great Lakes service from Lewistown to Denver, we spent at least four less hours getting to and from Denver, and any connecting flights to other parts of the country were significantly cheaper than going out of Billings. The Great Lakes flights were at convenient times, affordable and we could park for free at the Lewistown airport. My husband ʼ s sisters live in the midwest. When his mother had hip replacement surgery, they were able to connect through Denver with the Great Lakes flights. We could leave vehicle keys at the airport for his sisters who were coming in to care for her post surgery. We were not here when they arrived, yet they were able to get themselves from the airport to the hospital with no inconvenience for anyone outside the family. Both these sisters have children who live out of state also. They can fly to Lewistown a lot cheaper through Denver, and they don ʼ t have to rent vehicles to get them from any of the bigger airports to Lewistown. It makes visiting family here in Lewistown a lot more user friendly and likely, because the costs and inconveniences are less. I think we also had people driving to Lewistown from Great Falls to use the much less expensive flights to Denver and take advantage of the free parking.

It made absolutely no sense to switch carriers, especially a carrier whose pilots and service crews had no experience flying in the weather conditions Montana has duringour winter months. From my recollection, we were promised all kinds of better options from Gulf Stream during the bidding process, but none of them were useful to the customers who frequented the former Great Lakes flights to Denver from Lewistown. I recently put together a list of 15 families who have ties to Colorado who would once again use the EAS service if we have Great Lakes flights to Denver. I am sure there are many more that I am not familiar with.

I sincerely hope you will use the ridership numbers from the 2009-2010 years to make your decision on removing Lewistown ʼ s EAS service. They more accurately reflect the use of the EAS service in Lewistown, and we surely do benefit as a community from having a more user friendly option available to us.

Sincerely,

Dana Leininger 1015 Lower Cottonwood Creek Road Lewistown, Montana 59457

Phone: 406-538-3167