Airlines express an interest in essential air service provision for El Dorado

The bidding period has opened for Essential Air Service providers to submit proposals to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Mickey Murfee, chairman of the El Dorado Airport Commission, said Aug. 17 is the deadline to turn in bids for the federal EAS contract, which subsidizes airlines who serve small communities and guarantees that those communities have a minimal level of scheduled air service.

Southern Airways Express has served as El Dorado’s EAS provider since 2017, having been awarded its current twoyear contract in 2019.

Southern Airways also serves Hot Springs and Harrison, two other EAS communities in Arkansas, offering flights to Dallas and Memphis.

Per its EAS contract for El Dorado, Southern Airways, whose corporate office is located in Memphis, is to offer 12 round trip flights to Dallas and six to Memphis each week, with a subsidy of $2.5 million for 2019 and $2.6 million for 2020.

The current contract expires May 1, 2021.

During an airport commission meeting Monday, Johnathan Estes, manager of South Arkansas Regional Airport

at Goodwin Field, said he has heard from another airline who has expressed interest in bidding for the federal contract to provide EAS service to El Dorado, Hot Springs and Harrison.

SkyWest, a Utah-based regional airline, has discussed offering flights from El Dorado to Colorado or New York, Estes said, adding that he advised the airline to consider flights to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

“But they would be competing with cheaper fares there,” he said.

An El Dorado-Atlanta route is another possibility, he said.

“They only fly jets? Am I right or am I wrong?” asked Murfee, referring to SkyWest.

Estes said SkyWest flies the 40-plus passenger ERJ 145 jet.

Estes previously said a new airline data survey is under way for this year for SARA-El Dorado and the results will be used for bid considerations by SARA and the USDOT.

A study that was completed in December of 2018 and used for the 2019 EAS bid cycle showed that 36% of passengers who flew out of SARA to Dallas connected to flights with another airline, while 64% remained local (in Dallas).

Estes said the top five most popular destinations for boardings at SARA were Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Denver, New York City and Seattle.

Zip codes for the top six catchment areas (where passengers registered for flights) were El Dorado, Camden, Magnolia, the Junction City area, Smackover and Crossett.

Estes said he expects the data to change when the next survey is completed this year, noting that at the time the 2018 survey was taken, Southern was offering flights only to Dallas and had not yet been approved for the Memphis route.

“I anticipate that we will see a different group of people with an interest in going to Memphis.

I hope to see a broader number of zip codes in the data service area,” Estes said.

Trends that are captured in the survey will also be used to help develop marketing and promotion strategies for EAS in El Dorado, he said.