Lewistown Municipal Airport 

From: Curtis Hershberger [curther@ttc-cmc.net] 

Sent: Friday, April12, 2013 9:24AM 

To: 

Cc: 

Lewistown Municipal Airport 

185heresh@gmail.com 

Subject: Fw: EAS service 

United States of America 

Department of Transportation 

Office of Secretary 

Washington, D.C. 

Docket DOS-OST-1997-2605 

Order of Show Cause Letter 

The low amount of passenger boarding's at the Lewistown Airport reflects the feelings of the 

population in the Central Montana Area. We have found the service offered to Lewistown, with 

flights to Billings on Silver Airways is sometimes impossible to use, with it being very difficult to 

book flights on Silver on a through flight. In the beginning the airline did not even have a listed 

phone number, with many calls coming in to the airport managers office asking how to get a 

ticket. Anyone trying to do an internet search for flights could not book through to Lewistown 

without their search going through Billings. Where most of the Lewistown and Miles City travel 

was out of the state and not to Billings, unlike many of the other EAS Airports. Many flights 

were late or canceled, making for long layovers in Billings or missed connections. Silver Airways 

planes are not even equipped with proper GPS to utilize the new instrument approaches into 

LWT in poor weather conditions. 

The current way that Essential Air Service is being offered is not working, and is in Fact a waste 

of Tax Payer money. That does not diminish the fact that Lewistown and the surrounding 

communities NEED air service. Going back and looking at the boarding's, when we had 

dependable service to Denver, Lewistown was well within the EAS subsidy guide lines. I have 

had many conversations with people in our community about how to restore service to a hub 

like Denver. Some feel that without dependable air service to Lewistown it will and has already 

affected real estate and business development and to lose this only connection to other states 

will definitely have an economic impact on this area. 

I would please ask the DOT to not enforce the removal of Lewistown from the EAS system at 

this time and to give us a chance to work with the air carrier that is chosen to get the service 

that will meet the needs of the Central Montana Air traveler. 

I am also concerned about how stopping flights to LWT and MLS will affect the remaining five 

airports and the whole EAS service to Montana. By keeping Essential Air Service to LWT and 

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MLS we can work together to find a way to increase passenger boarding's. That will be good for all seven 

communities that are serviced by the EAS system. 

In summary, Lewistown has not failed to use the Essential Air Service, it has just responded to an unusable 

product being offered to the community. We very much need a way to move people in and out of Central 

Montana if want to see economic growth here. 

Respectfully Yours, 

Curtis Hershberger 

Central Montana EAS Representative 

Former LWT Airport Board Chairman 

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4/12/2013