Lake Minchumina airport has an obvious choice for an EAS airline
The Basics
Lake Minchumina, never heard of it? Neither have I. But as an Alaskan city with a population of 14 people completely off the grid, air service is necessary to stay connected. The local airport has been served by Everts Air with two flights per week to Fairbanks, AK utilizing a Cessna 208 Grand Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12 that seemingly operates in a “milk run” format. There’s no telling how many seats are in these aircraft as the proposal has a very limited list of information. Although, Everts Air did state they were willing to add “extra sections” with no extra subsidy costs if their contract extension proposal is approved.
The annual subsidy would be $184,337.29 if every single flight were to be completed (100% cr). If these aircraft are the size I think they are (nine seats), then there are 936 scheduled seats. Therefore the subsidy is paying roughly $197 per ticket, saving fliers a lot of money.
Another airline that is wanting to fly Lake Minchumina residents to Fairbanks is one I’ve never seen before, Wright Air. The airline is wanting to fly to Fairbanks twice weekly, one flight will be operated using either Cessna 208B Grand Caravan (nine seats) aircraft, and the other a Cessna 206 (four seats). For a population of 14, I can see why you would think this is more suitable considering that federal dollars are paying for this airline to make any profit. Well the annual subsidy is $213,600. We did the math for you, a $28,662.71 discount on a constant frequency of nine seater aircraft from a reliable airline company? According to the proposal this is 25% higher than the airline’s last attempt to serve this market. This means that two years ago their proposal had a $160,200 annual subsidy.
Author’s Opinion:
This right here is the part that really gets me. Wright Air’s proposal is wanting this EAS subsidy to cover $315 per ticket, it costs this much to rent a Cessna 206 privately including the pilot. Each flight is covered by $1,293.90, a ridiculous amount for how much they are probably paying their pilots. If that is truly how much the ramp fees in any of the serviced airports cost, I would hire a lawyer. Considering this is a milk run operation I believe this airline is expected to get this kind of payment from other disconnected areas in the United States.
The proposals are available for view down below. Also we now have an Instagram! Go check us out at @easinsider.
