{"id":21371,"date":"2022-03-15T00:06:19","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T00:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=21371"},"modified":"2022-03-16T02:19:43","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T02:19:43","slug":"skywest-to-end-service-to-29-cities-due-to-pilot-shortage-states-react","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/iowa\/skywest-to-end-service-to-29-cities-due-to-pilot-shortage-states-react\/%20","title":{"rendered":"SkyWest to End Service to 29 Cities Due to Pilot Shortage, States React"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>SkyWest Airlines intends to end scheduled service to 29\ncities in the coming months as it continues to face a flight crew shortage. The\nSt George, Utah-based regional carrier on 10 March gave notice to the\nDepartment of Transportation (DOT) that it will end the flights on or before 10\nJune this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLast week, Skywest notified three communities in Iowa\n(Sioux City, Mason City, and Fort Dodge) of their intent to terminate Essential\nAir Service (EAS) due to pilot staffing issues, said Tim McClung, Aviation\nDirector for the Iowa DOT. \u201cService at all of those communities is under the\nUnited Airlines banner. The U.S. DOT is already actively engaged with the\ncommunities and has issued an order to hold Skywest in each market until a\nreplacement carrier is found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"156\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/skywest-jet-on-tarmac-cr.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21372\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Ann Richart, Director of Aeronautics for the Nebraska\nDepartment of Transportation said that SkyWest\u2019s decision to drop profitable\nroutes is disappointing for Nebraska communities and should also serve as an\nindication of the challenges all US air carriers are currently facing. \u201cKearney,\nNorth Platte, and Scottsbluff are not the smallest Nebraska commercial service\nairports,\u201d noted Richart. \u201cAs a matter of fact, all three set enplanement\nrecords in 2019 before the pandemic.\u201d All three also recorded strong passenger\ntraffic in 2021 with Kearney setting a new record at 25,000 annual\nenplanements.&nbsp; These routes are all\nsubsidized under the Essential Air Service program which means that they were\nprofitable for the airline.&nbsp; \u201cAs is often\nthe case in air service actions, SkyWest is looking for more than profitable\nroutes: they are choosing to serve the routes that are the MOST profitable,\u201d\nsaid Richart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kyle Wanner, Executive Director of the North Dakota\nAeronautics Commission said they are disappointed that workforce shortage\nissues have placed SkyWest in a position where they have decided to request the\ntermination of their contract obligations to provide air service to two\nEssential Air Service communities in North Dakota and many others throughout\nthe country.&nbsp; \u201cWe are appreciative of the\nquick response by the USDOT to issue an order that prohibits SkyWest to\nterminate air service in the near term while quickly moving forward to request\nproposals from potential replacement carriers,\u201d said Wanner. \u201cWhether other\nairlines have the capability or interest in providing service to these\ncommunities remains to be seen as we also acknowledge that we are in\nchallenging times for both the airline industry as well as our rural\ncommunities that are attempting to maintain their air service options.&nbsp; We look forward to working with our\ncommunities, our airline partners, and our congressional delegation to identify\npotential solutions to these challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Richart said she is delighted that DOT has directed SkyWest\nto continue serving EAR, LBF, and BFF until another carrier can be found. \u201cI\nhope that a new carrier offers the same quality aircraft and good connections\nthat SkyWest\u2019s United Express service has to these communities.\u201d&nbsp; The University of Nebraska campuses in Omaha\nand Kearney are offering flight degree programs to provide needed pilots for US\nair carriers, and according to Richart, several Nebraska school districts are\nalso offering aviation programs to develop interest in aviation carriers at an\nearly age.&nbsp; \u201cRural communities rely on\nair service to connect them to the global economy; it\u2019s important for our\ncommunities that we maintain this connection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McClung noted that they hope to learn more in the coming\nweeks in regard to Iowa, but for now the parties are working together to minimize\nservice disruptions to the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SkyWest Airlines intends to end scheduled service to 29 cities in the coming months as it continues to face a flight crew shortage. The St George, Utah-based regional carrier on 10 March gave notice to the Department of Transportation (DOT) that it will end the flights on or before 10 June this year. \u201cLast week, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,115,49,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iowa","category-national-news","category-nebraska","category-north-dakota"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21371"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21376,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21371\/revisions\/21376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}