ToniCounter

How many small U.S. airports are served exclusively by US Airways?
(usually US Airway Express flights)

kudzu

PGV (Greenville, NC) is one that comes to mind ...

ToniCounter

I just flew Delta to Greenville a couple of week ago. There were many other airlines as well.

BoeingBoy

Very few these days.

Technically, none since they're all EAS airports served with turboprops by a separate carrier that splits revenues with US in exchange for using the US brand and US doing the res/ticketing and usually handling at the hub end of the flight. Those flights are handed out by the FAA to carriers that apply to operate them and are subsidized by the government.

That's a completely different arrangement than most of the other Express affiliates have where US basically pays the operating cost of the flights plus profit and has complete control over where/when the planes fly and keeps all the revenues.

Jim

yellow77

It's not true that every airport that is served only by US-coded flights is EAS. One example is HVN, which is only served by Piedmont from PHL but is definitely not EAS. I think IPT and SBY are also not EAS. There are probably some others. Your basic point is right that these are airports served only by US-coded flights operated by regional partners, rather than by US itself, but the EAS part isn't necessarily true.

yellow77

You are likely thinking of GSP (Greenville, SC), rather than PGV (Greenville, NC).

beachbrew

I believe FLO is a awe only airport now, delta pulled out around the first of the year.

CMK10

Not mentioned so far:

Flagstaff, AZ (FLG) is now that AS pulled out.
Bar Harbor, ME (BHB)
Presque Isle, ME (PQI)
Hilton Head, SC (HHH)
Lynchburg, VA (LYH)

adkrick

As of last summer anyway, IPT (Williamsport PA) was a one-gate USAirways regional only, operation back and forth to PHL.

CMK10

IPT was mentioned in post 5, but I did come across it on my research. I see they dropped service to Lancaster, PA sometime in the last few years.

excop48

There are only THREE at this time: BAR HARBOR which expires 10/31/2012
PRESQUE ISLE 5/31/2012
PLATTSBURG 6/20/2012


ME Bar Harbor Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport Boston Colgan Air
dba US Airways Express Saab 340/34 $2,298,533 1997-2784 2010-9-28 October 31, 2012
ME Presque Isle Northern Maine Regional Airport at Presque Isle Boston Colgan Air
dba US Airways Express Saab 340/34 $2,812,853 2000-8012 2010-6-5 May 31, 2012
NY Plattsburgh Plattsburgh International Airport Boston Colgan Air dba US Airways Saab 340/34 $2,117,101 2003-14783 2010-3-27 & 2010-3-32 June 30, 2012

4Health

SBY definitely

dcpatti

what do the dollar figures on these examples represent?

GotCalcio4

Augusta, ME?

kwildnj

The $$ amount shown is the annual federal government subsidy provided to the airline to operate the Essential Air Service route to/from the specific city.


The EAS is (in my opinion) one of the largest nationwide pork projects the United States has ever had.


Take Morgantown, WV. (MGW) 90 minutes south of Pittsburgh, but it was deemed to need air service, so the federal government pays Colgan 1.5 million a year to fly that route.


20 miles to the south of Morgantown is Clarksburg, WV (CKB). The airport here also was deemed to need air service, so Colgan receives another 1.5 million a year to fly to Clarksburg.

Clarksburg also sees its fair share of charter flights for West Virginia University's athletic teams/opponents, as MGW's runway cannot handle the larger (737 and up size) planes.

All flights Go either IAD-MGW-CKB-IAD or IAD-CKB-MGW-IAD.

I've flown to CKB three times now, and each time, I'd say there were 10-15 people on the flight. Most go to Morgantown.


Some 60 or so minutes west of the two also lies Parkersburg, WV, yet another city which was deemed to need air service. Gulfstream receives 2.7 million a year to service that city.



A similar situation exists in Nebraska with Kearney and Grand Island Airports being 20 miles apart, and both receiving funding. I flew to Grand Island once, and was the ONLY passenger on the plane, and I was rerouted due to irrops precluding me to get to Omaha. Had that not happened, the plane would have gone out empty, something the ground crew in Grand Island happens a few times each week! (Yet the airline still gets a subsidy, regardless of passengers flown!)



Take a look at:

wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_Air_Service



U'll be amazed.