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;-Li OPERATIONS 

us. Department of 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE 

TransportCrtion ? ::| ^' P ] C O j^ ; '^ 5 Washington, DC 20590 

Office of the S«f tetory 

ofTransportatioh 

September Ip, 2011 

Bob Whitmejr 

Airport Director 

Owensboro Ipaviess County Regional Airport 

2200 Airport] Rd 

Owensboro, kV 42301 

Dear Mr. Whitmer: 

I would like ^o update you on the essential air service situation at Owensboro and give 

you an oppoijtunity to submit any comments if you wish. In response to Pacific Wings' 

90-day notictk of intent to terminate service, the Department issued Order 2011-8-6, 

August 19, 2011, to solicit proposals from all interested air carriers to provide EAS at 

Owensboro for a two-year term. In response to that order, we received proposals from 

Hyannis Air :^ervice, Inc. d^/a Cape Air (Cape Air), Multi-Aero, Inc. d^/a Air Choice 

One (Air Choice One), SeaPort Airlines, Inc. (SeaPort), and TransportAzumah. 

Copies of eac|h proposal may be accessed online at http://www.reguIations.gov by 

entering DOt-OST-2000-7855 in the "Enter Keyword or ID" section. 

Cape Air proposes three daily nonstop round trips (21 per week) to Lambert-St. Louis 

International jAirport (St. Louis) using 9-passenger Cessna 402 aircraft. The carrier 

expects to offjer a code-share agreement with American Airlines. Cape Air proposes an 

annual subsidly of $1,829,680, for a two-year term, or an armual subsidy of $1,784,898 

for a four-year term. 

Air Choice O le proposed four options, each operating with 9-passenger Cessna Grand 

Caravan aircraft. Option 1 is three nonstop round trips each weekday and weekend (18 

per week) to St. Louis for an annual subsidy of $1,504,893. Option 2 is three daily 

nonstop roun(jl trips (21 per week) to St. Louis for an armual subsidy of $1,579,756. 

Option 3 is thtee nonstop round trips each weekday and weekend (18 per week) to 

Nashville Intelrnational Airport (Nashville) for an annual subsidy of SL426,475, 
-2 

Option 4 is ^hree daily round trips to Nashville (21 per week) for an annual subsidy of 

$l,566,823.j In addition. Air Choice One states that each of its four options would offer 

10 nonstop round trips each week on an unsubsidized basis. Under Options 1 and 2, it 

proposes five nonstop round trips to Chicago O'Hare and five additional nonstop round 

trips to St. Louis. Under Options 3 and 4, it proposes five nonstop round trips to Chicago 

O'Hare and five additional nonstop round trips to Nashville. However, the proposed 

unsubsidized service is outside the scope of the EAS program, thus> if selected, we could 

not require tjhat Air Choice One provide the service and we will not consider it in our 

carrier-selecjtion decision. 

I 

SeaPort pro]j)oses three options, all using 9-passenger Cessna Caravan aircraft. Option 1 

is three nongtop round trips each weekday and weekend (18 per week) to Nashville for an 

annual subsi|dy of $1,029,080 (first year) and $1,024,114 (second year). Option 2 is two 

nonstop rouftd trips each weekday and weekend (12 per week) to St. Louis and one 

nonstop rouijid trip each weekday and weekend (6 per week) to Memphis International 

Airport for an annual subsidy of $1,297,492 (first year) and $1,353,557 (second year). 

Option 3 is two nonstop round trips each weekday and weekend (12 per week) to St. 

Louis and one nonstop round trip each weekday and weekend (6 per week) to Nashville 

for an annual subsidy of $1,278,929 (first year) and $1,254,171 (second year). 

TransportAzumah proposes two ground transportation options, both utilizing a 47-

passenger bMs. Option 1 is four daily round trips to Nashville International Airport for an 

aimual subsidy of $377,151. Option 2 is six daily round trips to Nashville International 

Airport for ah annual subsidy of $545,727. 

Please note tfiat the average passenger fares shown in the proposal do not necessarily 

reflect the avierage local fare Owensboro passengers would actually pay, but, rather, 

reflect a prorated portion of the total ticket price, e.g., the Owensboro - St. Louis portion 

of a Owensboro - St. Louis - Washington, D.C. ticket that Great Lakes would realize. 

Also, the far^ shown is net of certain charges such as Federal transportation security fees, 

excise or tickjet taxes, and Passenger Facility Charges. Of course, carriers have the 

discretion to charge fares they deem appropriate, and the passenger fares presented in this 

proposal hav^ been developed for subsidy rate computation purposes only. 

You should also note that the schedules that the carrier has submitted are illustrative only, 

and that they may make schedule changes to reflect changing conditions, e.g., to better 

meet shifting connecting bank times at the hub. The Department expects subsidized air 

carriers to maintain well-timed and well-spaced flights in order to ensure full 

compensatioij. 

We ask that ^jou submit any comments you may have as soon as possible, but in any case 

no later than October 5, 2011. We will carefully consider your comments before we 

submit a recommendation to the Assistant Secretary for a decision. Should you have any 

questions or lieed additional time to draft your comments, please let us know. 
Please sendlyour comments via e-mail to EAS@dot.gov or by fax to 202-366-7638. If 

you have any questions, please feel free to contact Kevin Schlemmer of my staff at 

kevin.schlein-inier@dot.gov or 202-366-3176. 

A similar lef:ter has been sent to the Mayor of Owensboro. 

Sincerely, 

Dennis J. D^VMiy 

Chief, Esserjtial Air Service