CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY 

OFFICE OF THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE 

Cerace Office Building • 3 N. Erie St. • Mayville, NY 14757-1007 

(716) 753-4211 • FAX (716) 753-4756 • EdwardsG@co.chauJauqua ny us 

GREGORY J. EDWARDS www.co.chautauqua.ny.us 

County Executive 

July 25,2010 

Mr. Dennis J. DeVany 

Chief, Essential air Service Division 

Office of Aviation Analysis 

US Department of Transportation 

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE 

Washington, D.C. 20590 

Dear Mr. DeVaney: 

In response to your letter of July 8,2010, please consider this letter as Chautauqua 

County- Jamestown Airport's comments on the service and subsidy proposals for 

Essential Air Service to our community. 

Chautauqua County supports the EAS bid from Gulfstream International Airlines to 

continue their service to the Cleveland Hopkins airport from our community and from 

Bradford, PA. We fully realize the disparity in the bid amounts quoted by Gulfstream 

International Airlines and Charter Air Transport. However, we feel the differences 

between the two proposals strongly favor allowing us to continue the efforts we have 

employed over the past two years to re-establish Chautauqua County Airport as a viable 

option for passenger entry into the national airspace system 

In January, 2008 Colgan Airlines changed their EAS service as a USAirways commuter 

with service to Pittsburgh to being a United Express commuter with service to 

Washington's Dulles Airport. The reliability of that service dramatically declined, taking 

with it many years of community efforts to build trust and confidence in the air carrier 

serving Chautauqua County. Ten months later, Gulfstiream International Airlines won the 

EAS bid, resulting in a new alliance (Continental Airlines) and a new destination 

(Cleveland). Again, we were placed into a situation of having to re-market and reeducate the travelling public as to the benefits associated with a new carrier serving a 

new city. Fortunately, Gulfstream has been able to deliver everything they promised over 

the past 21 months, providing outstanding reliability and on-time operations. In the event 

Charter Air Transport were to be selected as the EAS carrier serving our community, we 

would be faced with having to battle the negative issues that would result from having 

three different airlines serving four different destinations in less than 2 Vi years. Most or 

all of the marketing efforts we have expended over the past two years touting the benefits 

c;.j 
ofour airline service to a significant hub airport with over 300 daily departures to more 

than 85 cities would become useless. The benefits of the code share Gulfstream has with 

Continental Airlines, one of the world's premier airlines, would be lost. 

Although the EAS proposal by Charter Air Transport is $197,946 less than Gulfstream's 

bid, it also has 33% fewer flights utilizing aircraft with the same seating configuration. 

This is a significant concern to us, as we feel it is extremely important to offer as many 

departure and arrival times as feasible in order to attract the maximum number of 

pa.ssengers. Research and discussions with other EAS communities has defmitely 

established a pattern that shows increased enplancments result from increased Might 

frequency, whereas reducing daily tlights dramatically deercasesthc enplanemetus. The 

additional 7 weekly fliglits included in Gulfstream's bid are very important to us. 

After meeting with the principal officers of Charter Air Transport at their office in 

Cleveland, we learned that although their intentions are admirable and their confidence in 

their business plan is exceptional, the uncertainty of their interline agreements with other 

carriers and their incomplete baggage transfer plan makes it very difficult for us to 

recommend they be chosen as our EAS carrier. In order for us to endorse or recommend 

their selection, we would have to a.ssume that their as yet to be detcnnined solution is 

viable and will work. At this time, that's a risk we don't feel we can take. 

As a community, we sincerely hope that the efforts we have expended to help establish 

safe and reliable air transportation to and from Cleveland Hopkins Airport we be allowed 

to continue. We .support Gulfstream International Airlines' bid to continue to provide 

Essential Air Service for residents and visitors to Chautauqua County. 

SiKccrely, --. >^ 

Gregorys. Edw^F<te 

CBaukuqua County Executive