By Jamie Brough
Lake Powell Chronicle

For the first time in more than 35 years, Great Lakes Airlines did not get a formal recommendation from Page City Council to fulfill the city’s Essential Air Services contract.
Instead, the recommendation went to the California-based Boutique Air. If the name rings a bell, it’s because Boutique was the airline that nearly supplanted Great Lakes as Page’s EAS carrier the last time the contract was up for renewal in 2015.
EAS is a federally mandated and subsidized program established in the 1970s that allows smaller, rural communities to maintain an airport with guaranteed flights when it would otherwise be financially unfeasible for airline companies to operate. Of the more than 150 markets in which EAS operates, 45 are located in Alaska. The program costs right around $250 million of taxpayer money per year.
Council experienced a case of déjà vu when they initially voted 3–3 in favor of Great Lakes last Wednesday. During 2015’s renewal decision, council had initially voted 4–3 in favor of Boutique, but rescinded during a special meeting where councilor Mike Bryan swung his vote in favor of Great Lakes.
However, Bryan kept his vote for Boutique this time around, with councilor Dugan Warner being the swing vote, carrying the decision 4–2 for Boutique. Councilman Levi Tappan, who voted for Boutique in 2015, was absent for the vote. The two nay votes were Mayor Bill Diak, and Vice Mayor John Kocjan.
“I’m torn,” Warner said before the vote. “I’m really torn … But it may require a new name in order to reinvigorate airline travel in Page.”
The Page Airport Advisory Board, a body of local aircraft enthusiasts and pilots, unanimously endorsed Boutique to council both in 2015 and this year.
Boutique, a relative newcomer in the airline industry, was established in 2007 and has been quickly replacing Great Lakes and other airlines across the United States to fulfill EAS contracts.
In just the last four years, Boutique has supplanted Great Lakes after cities took similar votes at airports in Show Low, Merced, Calif., and Minnesota. Boutique has also replaced SeaPort Airlines in towns in Alabama and Oregon, and, as of May 2017, will replace Cape Air’s EAS contract in Massena, N.Y.
Several members from council, alongside frequent fliers in the Page community, have expressed continuing concerns with Great Lakes’ service and reliability in recent years. The gripes came to a head in 2014 after Department of Transportation mandates changed required flight hours for pilots on larger aircraft.
Specifically, the new ruling cranked the minimum pilot hours to operate a 19-seat or higher aircraft to 1,500 total hours — making many pilots who were previously qualified instantly exempt.

Great Lakes in response removed 10 seats from their 19-seat Beechcraft 1900 airplanes, bypassing those requirements and keeping pilots within the eligible pool. But the airline still struggled with keeping pilots available to service Page.
The FAA has claimed the change to the hour requirements was to increase safety and accountability. But many airlines, even some larger than the likes of Great Lakes, say it’s constricting an industry with an already too-low flow of new jobseekers.
Great Lakes continued to suffer from an increasing string of pre-canceled flights and reliability complaints leading up to their Page EAS renewal in 2015. Cities served by Great Lakes reported similar reliability issues during the same timeframe.
However, throughout the year, Page city officials reported Great Lakes made tangible efforts to reinvigorate their service in Page, which included domiciling pilots dedicated strictly to flying Page routes. In 2016, the company reported a 97 percent flight completion rate. At its worst point in 2014, Great Lakes was canceling more than a third of its flights to and from Page.
Great Lakes President Chuck Howell told council last week that the airline would be reinstating its 19-seat configuration on its aircraft in April, saying he believed the airline was concretely proving it could provide a reliable level of service.
But many councilors expressed skepticism. Warner, who gave Great Lakes a yes vote in 2015, asked Howell how the airline could guarantee the 19 seats will remain permanent, citing Great Lakes’ previous track record as a point of concern.
Mayor Diak, however, said he believed in “giving second chances,” to Great Lakes.
“This is beyond a second chance,” retorted councilor Scott Sadler. “For me, when I’ve asked [Page citizens], it doesn’t matter if a plane has nine, 18 or even 30 seats. But if it’s a different airline, then [they’ll] probably fly again. But right now it doesn’t matter. The people here are not interested in the same airline anymore.”
Councilor Korey Seyler stated he wanted to “put himself in the passengers’ shoes,” and described a flight he took with Great Lakes down to Phoenix the previous weekend. He echoed Sadler’s chief complaint — stating that although the reliability may be back, the flight experience with Great Lakes is still subpar.
Seyler claimed there were “four minor [complaints] that were forgivable on their own, but when added up they certainly put a bad taste in my mouth.”
“Take that with a grain of salt, but it put me back into the mode of [the issues] we’re hearing from our citizens,” he said.
If Boutique secures the contract through the Department of Transportation, it will serve Page with its fleet of Pilatus PC-12 and Beechcraft King Air 350 airplanes.
Many municipalities across the country have cited similar reasons for choosing Boutique.
This includes Show Low City Manager Ed Muder, who told the Chronicle back in 2015 that his city council voted for Boutique due to a tangible record of reliability in their other EAS contracts.
“We appreciate what Great Lakes had done for us. They’ve served us for over 15 years now. But [Show Low city council] decided it’s time to get some new blood in here. We’ve had a lot of canceled flights — a lot of displaced passengers,” he said.
The Chronicle also interviewed Boutique CEO Shawn Simpson, who claimed the airline has a record for reliability because they have no issues keeping pilots employed. He further asserted this is due to Boutique’s class of newer refurbished aircraft.
“We’re a newer company. We value our pilots; I think we arguably have equipment pilots would rather fly. Our planes are newer, our GPS systems, our avionics — all modern,” he said. “I think pay is a factor, too. I don’t know the specific numbers for other companies. But I know we pay our pilots reasonably well.”

The future of EAS
And that approval could potentially be all for naught, as the future of EAS remains uncertain. In his recent budget proposal, Pres. Donald Trump has revealed a desire to remove all funding for Essential Air Services beginning next fiscal year.
EAS has remained a controversial subject among lawmakers and some aviation officials as reports of overspending and a lack of fiscal responsibility have increased.
EAS carriers sometimes run flights with no passengers on board because they are still paid for the flight under current EAS guidelines. In many cases, it’s more profitable for an EAS subsidized airline to run a flight even without passengers. Some routes, such as at the Lancaster Airport and Harrisburg Airports in Pennsylvania, are dubiously close to major hubs — eliciting questions from lawmakers as to whether they should be subsidized with taxpayer money.
While many aspects of Trump’s budget have been declared “dead on arrival” by congressional leadership, it still remains to be seen what will happen with EAS. Many aviation officials claim it at least needs a restructuring and overhaul. Boutique’s own bid for its service in Page — at $3.5 million — was $1.3 million higher than Great Lakes’.
Diak stated part of his reason for continuing to endorse Great Lakes was he wished to see Page “be an example in showing fiscal responsibility,” adding he would always take “the Chevy over the Cadillac.”
A Boutique spokesman responded how in their recently-acquired EAS contracts, Boutique had actually lowered per-passenger subsidy costs due to increased use of service and passenger count on their daily scheduled flights.
“That is something the DOT admires and they actually would prefer to go with us if we will have the ridership, reliability and passenger service excelling and exceeding previous passenger numbers [in Page],” he concluded.