U.S. Department of 

Transportation 

Office of the Secretary 

Of Transportation 

The Honorable Gary V. Staples 

Mississippi House ofRepresentatives 

Laurel, MS 39443 

Dear Mr. Staples: 

1200 New Jersey Ave., S.E. 

Washington, DC 20590 

Thank you for your letter supporting the application submitted by the Hattiesburg-Laurel 

Regional Airport for a grant under the U.S. Department of Transportation's Small Community 

Air Service Development Program. 

The Small Community Air Service Development Program was established to help smaller 

communities address air service deficiencies, particularly issues related to high airfares or 

insufficient service. Under the statute, the Department may make a maximum of 40 grant 

awards each year, although no more than four awards may be to communities in the same State. 

In order to provide communities with latitude in developing solutions to their air service 

deficiencies, the statute provides flexibility in the types of projects that can be funded. 

On June 24, the Department issued an order setting a deadline of July 26 for applications. As 

these grant requests are pending before the Department, I cannot comment on the merits of any 

particular proposal. I assure you that the Department will give full and fair consideration to all 

proposals that have been properly filed. 

As is our standard practice, I am placing a copy of your letter and this response in Docket 

DOT-OST-2013-0120 as a contact outside the record of this matter. I appreciate your interest in 

this program. 

Sincerely yours, 

e Development 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

GARY V. 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 of Transportation 

gth Floor, Room W86-307 

1200 New Jersey 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 for the purpose of expanded 

marketing and promotion of our 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 ability to 

retain existing business and industry and recruit new business and industry. 

I believe that part of the problem in this service transition is that while 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 but we cannot replace decades of a 

familiar airline name (Delta or Northwest) and a familiar destination (Memphis) overnight and expect 

our air travelers to make that significant shift. 

We need an infusion of marketing and promotional effort to get the 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 of air service issue. I urge 

the Department of Transportation to give the Hattiesburg-Laurel SCASD grant application favorable 

consideration. Thank you in advance for your consideration of our Grant application. 

~ 

Sincerely, //~ . 

)A/~ L 

Represenfativ.?'Gary V Stapes 

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