No more DUJ for US Airways Express

[jetpiedmont79]

LOCAL NEWS:
May 4th, 2007
Dawn Walls, editor
Commercial Carrier Taking Off at DUJ; New One Expected to Land Soon

DUBOIS - News that Mesa Air Group, a franchisee of US Airways, will soon leave the DuBois Regional Airport will not cause much turbulence for travelers.

That comes from Bob Shaffer, airport manager, who said he expects "a seamless transition that the travelling public would never even notice."

Mesa Air Group gave a 90-day notice to stop serving five East Coast airports, including DuBois, on Wednesday. The airports the company served -- DuBois; Lancaster; Greenbriar Valley Airport in Virginia; Franklin-Oil City; and Athens, Ga. -- were the last of the facilities Phoenix-based Mesa franchised on the East Coast.

Shaffer said the U.S. Department of Transportation will now go out to bid to find another carrier to serve the airport in DuBois and others affected by Mesa's notice. A bid could be awarded within the next month or so.

Shaffer said DuBois will continue to provide commercial air service through the Essential Air Service Program. According to the U.S. DOT Web site, "The Essential Air Service program was put into place to guarantee that small communities that were served by certificated air carriers before deregulation maintain a minimal level of scheduled air service." A previous law allowed carriers to determine which markets they would serve.

What that means for DuBois Regional is that an airline will come in to replace the departing Mesa Air Group.

Shaffer said the public might see some schedule changes with the shift in providers, but little else will be affected.

While he could not speak about what would happen for Mesa's employees at DuBois Regional, he said it is a safe bet to assume that the future carrier will need employees of the same professions

 

[jimcfs]

Mesa Air Group gave a 90-day notice to stop serving five East Coast airports, including DuBois, on Wednesday. The airports the company served -- DuBois; Lancaster; Greenbriar Valley Airport in Virginia; Franklin-Oil City; and Athens, Ga. -- were the last of the facilities Phoenix-based Mesa franchised on the East Coast.

How much of this is EAS service? I'm guessing DUJ, FKL and LNS are. LWB also has DL RJ service to ATL. All are service to PIT except one flight LWB-CLT and AHN-CLT.

Would Colgan pick this up (assuming they had the B1900s or Saab 340s) to do so? They just recently picked up the PKB, CLB/MGW EAS service that the CO express carrier had to abandon.

 

[JS]

LOCAL NEWS:
May 4th, 2007
Dawn Walls, editor
Commercial Carrier Taking Off at DUJ; New One Expected to Land Soon

DUBOIS - News that Mesa Air Group, a franchisee of US Airways, will soon leave the DuBois Regional Airport will not cause much turbulence for travelers.

That comes from Bob Shaffer, airport manager, who said he expects "a seamless transition that the travelling public would never even notice."

Mesa Air Group gave a 90-day notice to stop serving five East Coast airports, including DuBois, on Wednesday. The airports the company served -- DuBois; Lancaster; Greenbriar Valley Airport in Virginia; Franklin-Oil City; and Athens, Ga. -- were the last of the facilities Phoenix-based Mesa franchised on the East Coast.

...

The land on which LWB sits used to be in Virginia, before 1863. Now it's called "West Virginia".

 

[FM2436]

How much of this is EAS service? I'm guessing DUJ, FKL and LNS are. LWB also has DL RJ service to ATL. All are service to PIT except one flight LWB-CLT and AHN-CLT.

Would Colgan pick this up (assuming they had the B1900s or Saab 340s) to do so? They just recently picked up the PKB, CLB/MGW EAS service that the CO express carrier had to abandon.

I'm a big supoorter of the US Airways Express system, but are these markets necessary to the US Airways Express system??? The cost of operating these stations must be high and the manpower and complexity associated at the connecting hub is additionally costly. These are examples of very small non-hub airports, within a 2-3 hour drive to a US Airways hub that likely enplane fewer than 20,000 enplanements that US Airways should drop.

 

[FM2436]

Does anybody know how the EAS program is funded? How does US Airways get "Paid" to maintain these costly small cities?

I ask because long time ago I was talking with the "Killer B's" and Alaska Airlines & Ben mentioned, "Well Alaska is an interesting company but you have to remember their "Numbers" are helped by all the EAS locations they serve". We were just chatting about route structures and such when that came up. I never expanded on it, now I wonder how it all works.

Try this link to learn about the amount of subsidy being paid to air carriers in the EAS program. Scrole down to US Subsidized EAS Report and click on the May 1, 2006 (the latest years subsidy posted). Identifies the State, market, air carrier, aircraft, and subsidy level.

http://ostpxweb.dot.gov/aviation/X-50%20Ro...lairservice.htm

 

[Bear96]

The land on which LWB sits used to be in Virginia, before 1863. Now it's called "West Virginia".

Not only that, it's in the GreenbriEr Valley.

 

[jimcfs]

Try this link to learn about the amount of subsidy being paid to air carriers in the EAS program. Scrole down to US Subsidized EAS Report and click on the May 1, 2006 (the latest years subsidy posted). Identifies the State, market, air carrier, aircraft, and subsidy level.

http://ostpxweb.dot.gov/aviation/X-50%20Ro...lairservice.htm

Let's play with some numbers here, since FM2436 said these routes were costly.

I live between BLF and BKW, which have an EAS grant for their service to IAD, so let's play with that one. IIRC, there are 3 RTs to IAD per weekday and 2 RTs on the weekend, for a total of 19 RTs per week. Double that number for the number of OWs per week, 38. Note they usually fly these BLF-BKW-IAD, and then IAD-BLF-BKW, so there's always a 34 mi BLF-BKW or vice versa leg as a part of the OW.

According to the linky above, BLF/BKW gets about $978K per year in EAS money, at least based on the 2006 numbers. So, based on 38 OWs a week, 52 weeks/yr, that comes out to an average of about $495 per OW in subsidy for Colgan (not US, correct?).

Since US contracts with Colgan on this route, how much does US pay for US to fly it... anyone have any idea?

Also, how much would it cost to fly this route? We're talking about 250 mi OW, so fuel and aircraft expenses, landing fees, Captain and FO along with ground crew pay (usually 1 person/airport on BLF/BKW, dunno about IAD) and other intangibles I'm not aware of should be the costs (no FA/galley since these are B1900s).

The point I'm trying to make is, can't Colgan make $$$ off this even if they don't carry many customers? Obviously, if they don't run the flight as contracted, they don't get the EAS fee (and probably the US fee), but if they are able to run them, they should come out ahead in the long run.

 

[Prince of PAWOBs]

Try this link to learn about the amount of subsidy being paid to air carriers in the EAS program. Scrole down to US Subsidized EAS Report and click on the May 1, 2006 (the latest years subsidy posted). Identifies the State, market, air carrier, aircraft, and subsidy level.

http://ostpxweb.dot.gov/aviation/X-50%20Ro...lairservice.htm

An awesome link! Thanks, FM2436.

It's very cool to see how much is paid for JHW, BFD and especially LNS.

Was RDG considered EAS? I guess I'll hunt around the link and see.

 

[jimcfs]

An awesome link! Thanks, FM2436.

It's very cool to see how much is paid for JHW, BFD and especially LNS.

Was RDG considered EAS? I guess I'll hunt around the link and see.

IIRC, that was the reason LNS got the service... LNS was eligible, but RDG was too close to PHL for EAS.

 

[BoeingBoy]

The point I'm trying to make is, can't Colgan make $$$ off this even if they don't carry many customers?

Jim,

The latest figures I can put my hands on at the moment are from 2002, and based on 2001 data. They show the average cost of operating a B1900 at a little under $500 per block hour. Obviously, fuel has gone up quite a bit since then, as well as some other costs, so that number would be higher today.

I believe that the contract between US and the outside turboprop operators are of the revenue sharing variety instead of the fee for departure type in place with the RJ operators. Without access to the contracts themselves, there's no way knowing how the revenue is split between these operators and US or whether it's only the passenger revenue that is split.

Jim (the other one...)

 

[SegmentKing]

Air Midwest and Colgan operate as a pro-rate carrier, meaning they pay US about $11 per passenger to fly as USX. These carriers assume the risk of operating the flight. This is unlike carriers such as Air Wisky, Trans States, Mesa(MesaJET), Republic, and Chautauqua that get paid a flat fee per block hour, monthly mgt fee,and others for operating these flights, regardless of 1 passenger or 50 on board.

A Beech 1900D is about $1100 / hr (profit element included).

Hope this helps.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Hope this helps.

It's certainly much better info than I could scrounge up for jimcfs. Thanks.

Jim

 

[avion]

you know if you read the topic header fast it looks like it reads.. No more -DUI- for USairways..

 

[jimcfs]

Thanks all... I knew someone here would be able to help fill in the blanks.

The point is Colgan (and other EAS carriers) that have been doing these routes as long as they have must be at least breaking even or they would be dropping them even with the EAS money.

 

[jetpiedmont79]

I wonder if Colgan would want DUJ? Sometimes the flights are pretty full. I know some people who drive to DUJ so they don't have to use SCE-PHL. DUJ-SCE is only about 65 miles.

Its still sad to see USEx end DUJ service. I remember when they did 6 round trips to PIT a day. Two stopped in FKL. It used to be a mix of DHC-6, Shorts 330 under Crown Airways.

When Mesa took over in the 90's it went to Shorts 360 and 1900 aircraft, finally turining into just 1900D service.

Last time I was in the terminal at DUJ, they still had a BA/US code share sign up as you walked into security!