### U.S. Department of Transportation 

### Office ofthe Secretary OfTransportation



### The Honorable Gary V. Staples Mississippi House ofRepresentatives Laurel, MS 39443 DearMr. Staples: 1200 New JerseyAve., S.E. Washington, DC 20590



### Thank you for your letter supporting the application submittedbythe Hattiesburg-Laurel Regional Airport for a grant underthe U.S. Department ofTransportation's Small Community Air Service Development Program. The Small CommunityAir Service Development Program was established to help smaller communities address air service deficiencies, particularly issues relatedto high airfares or insufficient service. Underthe statute, the Departmentmay make a maximum of40 grant awards each year, although no more than four awards may be to communities inthe same State. In orderto provide communities with latitude in developing solutions to their air service deficiencies, the statuteprovides flexibility inthe types ofprojects that canbe funded. On June 24, the Department issued an order setting a deadline ofJuly 26 for applications. As these grant requests are pendingbefore the Department, I cannot comment on the merits ofany particularproposal. I assure you thatthe Department will give full and fair considerationto all proposals that have beenproperly filed. As is our standardpractice, I am placing a copy ofyour letter andthis response in Docket DOT-OST-2013-0120 as a contact outside the record ofthis matter. I appreciate yourinterest in this program. Sincerely yours,

e Development

### HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

GARYV. STAPLES COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS:

District 88 Agriculture Jones and Perry Counties 366 Forest Road Fees and Salaries of Public Officers Forestry Laurel, Mississippi 39443

Res (601) 649·4972 Capitol (601) 359·2434 July 30, 2013

Ms. Brooke Chapman, Associate Director 

### STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

Small Community Air Service Development Program U.S. Department ofTransportation gth Floor, Room W86-307 1200 NewJersey Avenue SE, Washington D.C. 20590 Reference: Docket DOT-OST-2013-0120 Dear Ms. Chapman, Oil, Gas and Other Minerals Tourism Universities & Colleges Information Technology Services lTD Oversight

The Hattiesburg-Laurel Regional Airport has submitted a proposal for a Small Community Air Service Development (SCASD) Grant. The proposal calls for Grant funding forthe purpose of expanded marketing and promotion ofour local air service. I urge the Department to approve this modest grant request. Delta Air Lines (or its merger partner Northwest) have served our city for decades with flights to Memphis. Suddenly last September Delta left and our new air service, Silver Airways to Atlanta, has struggled to gain traffic. This concerns me greatly. Local air service is essential to our economic well-being and our abilityto retain existing business and industry and recruit new business and industry. I believe that part ofthe problem in this service transition is thatwhile Delta is a household name in Mississippi, Silver Airways is not. Furthermore, our service switched from Memphis, that everyone was familiar with, to Atlanta. Now having service to Atlanta is great butwe cannot replace decades ofa familiar airline name (Delta or Northwest) and afamiliar destination (Memphis) overnight and expect our air travelersto make that significant shift. We need an infusion of marketing and promotional effortto getthe word out on our new service to Atlanta and on our new carrier. The SCASD program was designed by Congress to address precisely this type ofair service issue. I urge the Department ofTransportation to give the Hattiesburg-Laurel SCASD grant application favorable consideration. Thankyou in advance foryour consideration of our Grant application. Sincerely,

### //~ .

# ~**)A/~** 

# L Represenfativ.?'Gary V Stapes

NEW CAPITOL• P.O. BOX 1018 • JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI39215·1018