Story Created:
May 20, 2009 at 4:07 PM CDT
Story Updated:
May 20, 2009 at 5:28 PM CDT
The federal Department of Transportation says it received proposals from eight different air carriers interested in providing service to Harrison, Arkansas.
The Boone County Regional Airport has been without commercial air service since June 2007. Flights were supposed to take off this month, but the carrier backed out.
That's a problem for the small airport because the federal government requires airports to provide "essential service", in other words, some kind of airline service from smaller communities to larger cities. In the past couple of years three essential air providers went broke. One of them, Mesa Airlines provided service to Harrison.
Air Choice One, Mesaba Airlines, SeaPort Airlines, Sovereign Air, and TransportAzumah would provide service to six different communities: El Dorado, Hot Springs, Harrison, Jonesboro, Arkansas and Owensboro, Kentucky and Jackson, Tennessee.
Locair and Pacific Wings would fly to Owensboro, KY and Jackson, TN.
Enpower Aviation would provide service to Owensboro, KY.
The DOT will accept comments and suggestions until June 12.
It plans to announce its decision in late June or early July.
The airline would start flights about 90 days after that.
Judy McCutcheons of the Boone County Airport is expecting an October first startup date..
McCutcheons also is hoping the DOT chooses Mesaba Airlines.
We've included copies of each proposal below:
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