July 10, 2014 

Mr. Michael F Martin 

United States Department of Transportation 

Office of Aviation Analysis 

EAS & Domestic Ana lysis Division 

1200 New Jersey Ave., SE 

Washington, DC 20590 

RE: Docket DOT-OST-1999-5173 

Dear Mr. Martin: 

. [ 

:-' 

' ~ . -· '\ ;~\ 

. - ; '~-;, Mayor's Office 

211 West Third Street 

North Platte, Nebraska 69101 

(308) 535-6724 

Fax: (308) 535-6720 

North Platte, Nebraska has reviewed the Essential Air Service (EAS) bids that were submitted on June 12, 

2014. The Department of Transportation has requested our comments regarding the merits of the 

proposals by Monday, July 14,2014. This letter will constitute the comments of the City of North Platte . 

. We have carefully reviewed the bid proposals of Great Lakes Aviation. Our comments regarding the 

Great Lakes bid(s) are below. 

Great Lakes Aviation submitted three proposals for North Platte. The first is three round trip service 

most days of the week on 9 seat B1900 aircraft. This proposal forecasts 10,000 annual passengers. This 

is roughly half the level of historic traffic in North Platte. This bid is for $2.8 million in annual subsidy. 

This scenario will produce half the traffic at a cost to the EAS program of over $1.1 million more annually 

than in the previous EAS period. While this bid helps Great Lakes with pilot staffing it has a significant 

downside of halving traffic in North Platte. 

The second bid is on 19 seat B1900 aircraft with traffic forecasted at 20,000 annual passengers for a 

subsidy of $2.1 million annually. This bid is similar to the previous EAS period with a 400k higher annual 

subsidy. This scenario is certainly better for both the DOT and the community than the 9 seat bid. 

However, there is great uncertainly on what timeline this scenario would come to pass. As a result the 

community needs greater clarification on the timing of this bid. 

The third and final bid from Great Lakes is on 37 seat or larger jets with 12 trips per week. This bid 

would maintain the higher subsidy of $2.8 million but would offer potential of the highest number of 

passengers of all of the presented scenarios. North Platte sees this as the most desirable option from 

Great Lakes. However, there are a number of unclear items with this bid. Great Lakes requests the "full 

marketing support of the communities" for this option. North Platte requires a greater qualitative and 

quantitative understanding of what this would require. Additionally North Platte needs much greater 

clarification on when the jets would be available for service and what level of reliability the service 

would offer. If North Platte is to market and promote new jet service it must be consistently reliable for 

the community to use and trust the service. 
Page 2 

After careful consideration we would like to reject the Great Lakes Aviation bid and request that the 

Department of Transportation commence a re-bid process for our market. Our reasons are listed below; 

~ The 9 seat bid will greatly diminish passenger traffic. This is directly contrary to the goals of the 

community and the airport. It is unclear whether the community would see increased reliability 

in air service in this scenario from today's reduced level of reliability. 

~ The community needs much greater clarification on both the jet bid and the 19 seat B1900 bid. 

Understanding the marketing requirements of the community, the time line of when service 

would start, the reliability of such service, and other pertinent details must be spelled out in 

much greater detail for North Platte to get comfortable with these alternative bids. 

We do very much appreciate the interest that Great Lakes Aviation has shown in our market and we 

urge them to submit bids in a rebid process. We hope that Great Lakes and other carriers will, at the 

time of rebidding and in the comment period thereafter, be able to more fully demonstrate what their 

final operating plans and timelines are in much greater detail. 

We appreciate the Department of Transportation working with us to find the most effective EAS solution 

for North Platte. Our air service is very important to us and we want to use this bidding process to find 

an air service solution that can be a win for both the airline and the community. 

Best regards, 

/); / /-C~ ;\.J(/l£//~-~--

Dwight Livingst~ Mayor- City of North Platte