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U S . 0«partm«n t o f 1 200 New jersey Avenue, SE 

Transportatio n Washington, DC 20590 

Office of the Secretory 

of Transportation 

July 26, 2010 

The Honorable Mike Woolston 

Mayor of the City of Joplin 

602 S Main St. 

Joplin, MO 64801 

Dear Mayor Woolston: 

I would like to update you on the essential air service (EAS) situation at Joplin and Fort Leonard 

Wood, and give you an opportunity to submit any comments on the record before we submit a 

recommendation to the Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs. In response to 

Great Lakes Aviation's notice of intent to terminate its scheduled air service at Joplin and Fort 

Leonard Wood, the Department issued Order 2010-6-9, June 8, 2010, to solicit proposals from 

all interested air carriers to provide EAS at Joplin and/or Fort Leonard Wood. In response to that 

order, we received proposals from four carriers: Alaska Juneau Aeronautics, Inc. d/b/a SeaPort 

Airlines (SeaPort), Hyannis Air Service, Inc. d/b/a Cape Air (Cape Air), Executive Airlines d/b/a 

American Eagle Airlines (American Eagle), and Multi-Aero, Inc. d/b/a Air Choice One (Air 

Choice One). 

Copies of die proposals may be accessed online through the Federal Docket Management System 

(FDMS) at: http://www.regulations.gov/ by entering DOT-OST-2006-23932 for Joplin or DOTOST-1996-1167 for Fort Leonard Wood in the "Enter Keyword or ID" field. 

SeaPort proposes to serve Fort Leonard Wood with two daily nonstop round trips to St. Louis 

(14 total per week) and two daily nonstop round trips to Kansas City (14 total per week), 

utilizing 9-passenger Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. Its first year subsidy request is $1,838,255, and its 

second year subsidy request is $1,888,509. 

Cape Air has proposed service from Fort Leonard Wood to St. Louis using 9-passenger Cessna 

402 aircraft. It proposes to operate four nonstop round trips each day (28 total per week) to St. 

Louis for an aimual subsidy of $1,478,102. Depending on the community's luggage demand. 

Cape Air proposes combination passenger and freighter service. The freighter service would 

only be used when required. As an example, if 70% of departures required the freighter service, 

it would result in an additional $959,664 in annual subsidy. 
American Eagle proposes to operate two daily nonstop round trips (14 total per week) from 

Joplin to Dallas/Fort Worth Inteniational Airport, for an annual subsidy rate of $2,778,756. 

American Eagle proposes to operate 66-passenger ATR-72 aircraft'. 

Air Choice One has proposed service to Joplin and Fort Leonard Wood. It would operate 

9-passenger Cessna Caravan aircraft to St. Louis under all of its proposals. There are two 

options for Joplin - four nonstop round trips each weekday and weekend (24 total per week) for 

an aimual subsidy of $2,054,483, or five nonstop round trips each weekday and weekend (30 

total per week), for an annual subsidy of $2,442,623. There are three options for Fort Leonard 

Wood - four nonstop round trips each weekday and weekend (24 total per week) for an annual 

subsidy of $1,704,203, five nonstop round trips each weekday and weekend (30 total per week), 

for an annual subsidy of $1,960,797, or six nonstop round trips each weekday and weekend (36 

total per week), for an annual subsidy of 2,263,853. 

The schedules that the carriers have proposed are illustrative only, and they may make schedule 

changes to reflect changing conditions, e.g., to better meet shifting cormecting bank times at the 

hub. The Department expects subsidized air carriers to maintain well-timed and well-spaced 

flights in order to ensure full compensation. 

We request that you review each proposal and submit any comments you may have as soon as 

possible, but no later than August 9, 2010. We will carefully consider your comments before we 

submit a recommendation to the Assistant Secretary for a decision. Letters requesting feedback 

have also been sent to officials of both conmiunities. 

Please send your 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.schlemmer@dot.gov or 202-366-3176. 

Sincerely, 

^. /X /^-^ 

Dennis J. DeVany 

Chief, Essential Air Service Division, X-53 

Office of Aviation Analysis 

cc: Jeffrey Hartz, American Eagle Airlines 

Andrew Bonney, Hyannis Air Service, Inc. d/b/a Cape Air 

Shane Storz, Multi-Aero, Inc. d/b/a Air Choice One 

Rob McKinney, Alaska Juneau Aeronautics, Inc. d/b/a SeaPort Airlines 

' American Eagle requests to substitute, when needed, a 44-passenger Embraer 140 or a 50-passenger Embraer 145 

aircraft, to be reimbursed at the same subsidy rate.