Two Pennsylvania Republicans 'Re-Include' Lancaster
(PA)
Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) introduced a new bill that will
return commercial air service to Lancaster (PA) and to other
Essential Air Service (EAS) communities previously eliminated from
the program due to the Department of Transportation's (DoT)
ambiguous mileage requirement interpretation, which has eliminated
more than a handful of communities from the EAS program.
Senator Specter's bill, "The Essential Air Service
Eligibility Fairness Act of 2003," is scheduled to be introduced
later this week. Regional Aviation Partners (RAP) has worked with
Senator Specter's office for more than a year to develop an
equitable system to ensure "uniformity and fairness" in the
determination of EAS eligibility. Congressman Joseph R. Pitts
(R-PA) is also scheduled to introduce a companion bill in the
House.
"Our organization fully supports this legislation and we will
work diligently to ensure that it passes," stated RAP Executive
Director, Maurice Parker.
Specter announced the bill at a press conference on Monday,
April 28, 2003 at the Lancaster Airport in Lancaster, with
Congressman Pitts. The new bill will require the DoT to use "the
most commonly used route" between the community and the hub
airport. Senator Specter's bill will require the DoT to defer to a
Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) or an organization
designated by the governor of the state, as the final authority to
certify the distance and most commonly traveled route between hub
airports and EAS communities.
On April 29, 2002, Lancaster, PA, a community of over half a
million residents was deemed ineligible from the EAS program by the
DOT because it was within 65.3 driving miles of the Philadelphia
International Airport, less than 5-miles short of the 70-mile
statutory limit. Instead of using the "most commonly used highway
route" of 85.4 miles on the US 222 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike,
the DoT used its bureaucrats to choose a tortuous 66 mile route
between Lancaster and Philadelphia, going through villages and
boroughs that no Lancastrian would travel. That route takes more
than three hours to drive; instead of the most commonly used route
requiring only an hour and a half.
The present law, though, speaks of 'miles,' not 'hours' -- and
common sense isn't ever a criterion in Washington. [Legislating it
should work, though --ed.]
The Essential Air Service idea was part of the Airline
Deregulation Act of 1978, and was supposed to have lasted for ten
years. As so many government programs go, though, it was renewed in
1987, and made permanent in 1996. Apparently, no one has squawked
about this for 25 years...