The Western Nebraska Airport Authority Board is looking to replace PenAir (Anchorage Ted Stevens) as its Essential Air Service (EAS) provider at Scottsbluff, citing poor service, reports news site KNEB.
The Airport Authority's Chairman, Don Overman, told KNEB News that PenAir cancelled 134 flights from January 1 to May 18 this year. An additional 94 flights were delayed.
"PenAir had great ideas and wanted to provide good service, but as it worked out, [they were] unable to do so," Overman said.
PenAir was awarded the EAS contract in May 2016, and was to provide services from Scottsbluff, North Platte and Kearney to Denver International using a 33-seat Saab 340B for a period of two years starting November 1, 2016. The Socttsbluff services were to run 12x weekly for a total two-year subsidy of USD4,491,066. Other carriers which applied for the EAS were ADI Aerodynamics, Boutique Air, Elite Airways, Great Lakes Airlines, Key Lime Air and ViaAir.
In May, NBC Nebraska reported that PenAir was facing difficulties due to a pilot shortage. It consequently reduced its schedule to a 2x daily Scottsbluff-Denver service.
"If we get consistent with those two flight times and we keep those fare rates down then I think we got a shot at doing something good with it, but we've got to get consistent, we've got to stop cancelling flights and get consistent," airport director Darwin Skelton said at the time.
However, the Board will now inform the Department of Transportation (DOT) to issue a new request for proposals for Scottsbluff EAS services.
