Colgan Officially permanently in at JHW and BFD...this time to Dulles
The only problem with this story is that Colgan will be doing this as a United codeshare, supposedly, and not USAirways anymore.
RegionsAir Won’t Meet Deadline
9/29/2006 - Department Of Transportation Order Would Keep Colgan Air As Local Provider
By RANDY ELF
Special to The Post-Journal
WASHINGTON — RegionsAir has notified the U.S. Department of Transportation that it won’t file its flight schedules for the Jamestown and Bradford airports by the department’s deadline.
Thus, according to an order the department issued Sept. 21, Colgan Air will continue providing USAirways Express flights to and from Pittsburgh for the next two years.
At Colgan’s own request, the order gives Colgan the option of providing USAirways Express flights to and from Washington Dulles International Airport instead, with the same subsidy with which Colgan offered to serve Pittsburgh, ‘‘after consulting with the communities, its code-share partner, and conducting its own financial analyses to ensure that such a change would benefit all parties.’’
The Dulles opportunity is one that many community leaders in the Jamestown and Bradford areas originally advocated because the airport is a destination for some local travelers, and i has more domestic connections and far more international connections than either Pittsburgh or Cleveland.
Local flights would have served Cleveland under the RegionsAir proposal to provide Continental Connection flights.
RegionsAir’s Response
The Transportation Department, which selects carriers for the Jamestown and Bradford airports under the federally subsidized Essential Air Service program, on March 21 selected RegionsAir to replace Colgan, the local carrier since 2004.
According to information on the department’s Web site, RegionsAir was originally to begin Aug. 28, but requested a one-month delay and then another delay until Oct. 15. After the second delay, Colgan, citing harm to it and the traveling public, asked the department to revoke its selection.
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The department granted Colgan’s request Sept. 21, giving RegionsAir seven days to object without making ‘‘general or vague responses,’’ fully load its Jamestown and Bradford flight schedules into the airline industry’s computer-reservation system, have tickets available for sale, have fully executed contracts with both airports, and show it would begin service by Oct. 14.
The RegionsAir response, dated Tuesday and posted on the department’s Web site Wednesday, attributes its delay in filing flight schedules to its bringing new aircraft, the Saab 340A, online and ‘‘bringing the service level up to a high standard.’’
The response says that not serving Jamestown and Bradford will mean a ‘‘significant financial impact and perhaps irreversible harm’’ for RegionsAir, because it has leased ‘‘an aircraft,’’ maintained it, trained pilots and flight attendants, and purchased ground equipment.
Moreover, RegionsAir says it was negotiating with the Chautauqua County Airport ‘‘for a maintenance facility including tooling, with expectations that four experienced Saab mechanics in the local area would immediately staff the facility.’’
Bids
Colgan offered to provide USAirways Express service to and from Pittsburgh for a $2.4 million annual subsidy and USAirways Express service to and from Washington Dulles for a $2.8 million annual subsidy.
Despite local objections, the department on March 21 chose RegionsAir’s Continental Connection service to and from Cleveland, because RegionsAir offered to provide the service for a $1.6 million annual subsidy.
Colgan’s bid identifies its airline ‘‘code-share partner’’ as USAirways for Pittsburgh and United Airlines for Washington Dulles. The RegionsAir code-share partner for Cleveland would have been Continental Airlines.
Both Colgan proposals offered three round-trip flights each weekday, two on Saturday, and two on Sunday. RegionsAir offered the same, except for one round-trip flight on Saturday. Both Colgan proposals and the previously accepted Regions Air proposal offered service on 34 passenger Saabs, which Colgan has used for Jamestown and Bradford flights since 2004. A rejected RegionsAir proposal suggested 19 passenger planes.
Randy Elf, a West Ellicott resident, has been a teacher, a Post-Journal reporter, a law clerk to two federal judges, and a state Assembly candidate. He lives in West Ellicott and is a lawyer in Washington.
