In response to SkyWest’s announcements that the US pilot shortage would cause it to withdraw Essential Air Services (EAS) connections to 29 cities that began last month, the US Department of Transportation has intervened to stop SkyWest’s service withdrawal while seeking replacement vendors for the EAS connections.
Political intervention to buy time
Several Congressmembers last week wrote to the Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, insisting…
…DOT to issue an order prohibiting SkyWest from terminating air service and requiring the airline to serve out the remainder of its contract through June 2023. Concurrently, we request that the Department expedite the initiation of a Request for Proposals (RFP) process for future service so that another suitable air carrier can provide service to these communities.
US Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg’s department took just those actions. In an order prohibiting termination of service, the US Department of Transportation noted;
Congress has specified that the Department’s discretion to consider a reduction in basic EAS at individual EAS eligible communities is triggered not by a request from an air carrier providing EAS but by a request from the EAS eligible community. … Basic EAS requirements guarantee a minimum of two round trips a day, six days a week, to a large- or medium-hub airport.
Furthermore, the US Department of Transportation stated an intention to place consecutive 30-day orders on SkyWest not to terminate service until a replacement air carrier is found. In its order, the US Department of Transportation also requested bids to provide Essential Air Services to replace SkyWest.
Can the US DOT stop the airline from cutting flights? Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
What are Essential Air Services?
Under the Essential Air Services subsidy program that Simple Flying profiled, the US federal government provides…
