Rural Montana officials grow frustrated with lack of air services

As Essential Air Services resume for airports in Sidney and Lewistown, Glendive officials are expressing frustration. Not only have EAS flights failed to resume here, but there is no word on a plan to make it happen, they said.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to Glendive,” said Elmer Egli, EAS Task Force representative.

“We need to do something or we’re not going to have any air service,” he added.

The last commercial flight left Dawson Community Airport on March 8 of this year, the day Big Sky Airlines stopped running planes to seven eastern Montana airports, including Glendive, Miles City, Sidney, Glasgow, Havre, Lewistown and Wolf Point.

By Melissa Smith
Ranger-Review Staff Writer

Just a few months before, Big Sky had submitted a bid for the federal EAS?contract. The only competing bid came from Great Lakes Aviation, a Cheyenne, Wyo.-based company that offers similar service in other areas. The EAS Task Force awarded the bid to Big Sky.

However, not long after winning the bid, Big Sky announced it was going out of business. The Montana Department of Transportation then awarded the contract to Great Lakes, whose administration initially promised there would be no gap in services for any of the seven airports.

This week’s flights in Sidney and Lewistown are the first to take place under the Great Lakes contract, and local officials say they believe Glendive has been unfairly overlooked.

“It’s like people keep forgetting where Glendive, Montana is,”?said Commissioner Jim Skillestad. “They keep telling us we’re on the priority list, but we are still waiting to see exactly where we are.”

Skillestad, Egli and Airport Manager Leon Baker all say they have yet to hear a concrete plan from?Great Lakes that would restore EAS?services in Glendive.

“First they were telling us July 1, then Sept. 1, and now nothing,”?Baker said.

Egli said that with the company’s decision to switch flight destinations from Sidney and Lewistown to Denver instead of Billings, he’s concerned that Glendive will be out of the loop permanently, especially if the Miles?City flights go to Denver, as currently planned.

The Glendive flights, he said, were heavily dependent on Miles City passengers.

“If that happens, I don’t think it’s going to move forward for Glendive,”?he said.?“We need Miles City to bring our ridership up. Glendive couldn’t be profitable on its own. We don’t drum up enough business.”

Great?Lakes representatives were not available to comment on the future of the Glendive EAS?service.

Egli said it is upsetting that the airline did not hold up to its promise to continue uninterrupted service to all seven communities.

“They promised us the world when they were bidding for the job,”?Egli said. “They shouldn’t get to pick and choose which airports they serve.”

Egli said he believes the DOT?erred in handing the contract over to Great Lakes when they were not equipped to deliver services.

“They should have never been awarded the contract until they were ready to do something,”?he said. “They promised us they were going to do something right away, and then the excuse was that they couldn’t get the planes. Now the truth has come out that the planes were available.”

Egli said he is looking to Montana Sen. Max Baucus for help in holding Great Lakes accountable for its promises.

“The Congressman has the power through the DOT to hold their feet to the fire,”?he said. “Now that they have the contract, there’s been nothing to hold them to it.”

Egli said the EAS?Task Force is powerless in the situation and was only authorized to vote on a carrier.

Skillestad said he is still somewhat optimistic that the air service will be restored in?Glendive, but he believes it is going to take some effort.

“We’ve got to fight for everything,”?he said.

Baker said he, too, believes it is realistic to expect that commercial flights will eventually run again in Glendive.

“I miss it terribly,”?he said. “I feel like I’ve lost my little brother. It’s cut my workload in half not having them here.”

Baker added that the airport has been working to maintain the certification it needs to run commercial flights, to ensure that when Great Lakes is ready, Glendive will be ready.

Egli said the Great Lakes contract is good for two years, at which point, it can be re-examined by the task force.

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