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CEDAR CITY, Utah (AP) -- Mesa Airlines, picked over Cedar City opposition to provide federally subsidized service to the southwestern Utah community, said it will consider offering flights to Salt Lake City.
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced this week that Mesa Airlines had been picked to supplant SkyWest as the city's essential air service provider.
SkyWest provided flights between Cedar City and Salt Lake City. Mesa Airlines' proposal calls for nonstop flights to Las Vegas and Phoenix.
St. George-base SkyWest sought a $1,602,912 annual subsidy while Mesa sought $897,535.
"We want to do a good job and we want people in Cedar City to be happy," said Peter Murnane, executive vice president and chief financial officer for Mesa Air Group. "If there's something we need to do differently, we will try to do that."
What Mesa needs to do is add daily flights to Salt Lake City, said Steve Farmer, manager of Cedar City Regional Airport. Utah's capital city is the final destination for 51 percent of travelers from Cedar City, according to research done last year by SkyWest.
"We want to do what's best for the community. If they want service to Salt Lake City, we're more than willing to work with them to make that happen," said Mickey Bowman, Mesa director of planning. "With our aircrafts and our financial structure, we can probably make it work.
'We're going to put pen to paper and see what we come up with. If that's two flights to Salt Lake City and one to Las Vegas (each day), maybe that's what we end up doing," he said.
Mesa plans to serve Cedar City with 19-seat Beechcraft 1900D turboprop airplanes, smaller than the 30-seat Embraer-120 turboprops used by SkyWest.
While Farmer, Mayor Gerald R. Sherratt and Southern Utah University President Steven Bennion decried the selection of Mesa, Cedar City resident Karen Meltzer celebrated the news.
"If you want to get on an airplane in Cedar City, you have no choice. You have to go to Salt Lake City," Meltzer said. "That's not always the best thing for everybody."
Meltzer said that for a recent vacation, she and her husband, Norm, drove to St. George and used the St. George Shuttle to go to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.
"I would have loved to be able to get off the airplane (after the vacation), go out to the car and, in 10 minutes, we're home," she said.
Still, Meltzer said she hopes Mesa adds at least one daily flight from Cedar City to Salt Lake City.
"I firmly believe we need that," she said. "But three flights to Salt Lake City? It's nuts."
SkyWest officials have said they will protest the federal decision.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
