Letter to Mr. Peter M. Bowler, President, American Eagle Airlines

Letter

Letter to Mr. Peter M. Bowler, President, American Eagle Airlines

March 13, 2007

Mr. Peter M. Bowler
President
American Eagle Airlines
4333 Amon Carter Boulevard

Fort Worth, TX 76155

Dear Mr. Bowler:

I write today to request your assistance in restoring American Connection passenger service from Decatur, Marion, Quincy, and Springfield, Illinois, to St. Louis Lambert International Airport. As you probably know, the U.S. Department of Transportation recently awarded Great Lakes Aviation Essential Air Service (EAS) program designation for the Marion and Quincy flights. The Department has also issued an emergency order seeking proposals for Decatur service.

This urgent request is necessary because the previous carrier, RegionsAir, has ceased scheduled operations. And there are simply no guarantees that they will ever resume operations.

This most recent shutdown comes on the heels of a 48 hour cessation of service March 3. As we discussed last month, Regions has been generally unreliable from St. Louis to nine Midwestern cities for several months.

With four Illinois communities without scheduled passenger air service to St. Louis, this issue has become even more urgent than when we discussed Regions poor service record in February.

I appreciate all you and American have done to date to monitor this situation. I respectfully ask you to work with Great Lakes Aviation, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the affected communities to restore American Connection service to St. Louis as soon as possible.

Sincerely,
Richard J. Durbin
United States Senator

Source