Southern Airways Express (9X, Memphis International) is suspending its Essential Air Service (EAS) flights to Franklin Venango Regional in Pennsylvania and Hagerstown in Maryland, despite petitions being filed by both of the airport's operators to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to keep them running.
The US regional carrier was flying a 17x weekly service between Hagerstown and Baltimore International, as well as a daily route to Pittsburgh International, according to the ch-aviation schedules module. Both routes were flown using Southern Airways Express's (SAE) 9-seat Cessna (single turboprop) fleet. When interrogating the DOT's response to Washington County, Maryland's petition, Hagerstown's proximity to the nearby hubs of Washington Dulles, Baltimore International and Washington National, all of which are within 70 nautical miles (130 kilometres) of the airport, was cited as one of the main reasons for the failure of the service to attract enough passengers to the routes.
As a result of the cessation of these EAS flights, Hagerstown's only serving carrier is Allegiant Air (G4, Las Vegas Harry Reid), which currently operates 2x weekly to Orlando Sanford.
SAE's flights at Franklin consisted of a 19x weekly operation to Pittsburgh, again using the carrier's Cessna Caravans. The DOT had granted a total of eight waivers in five years to maintain the program's eligibility but has now clearly decided that no more waivers will be issued. The suspension of these flights leaves the western Pennsylvanian airport without regular scheduled operations.
Although EAS eligibility was withdrawn on October 18, according to Flightradar24, one last flight (9X174) from Hagerstown to Baltimore was operated by an SAE Cessna Caravan.
Although Hagerstown and Franklin will no longer be eligible for EAS, the DOT's order does not preclude SAE or any other carrier from serving these communities on their own initiative.
