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...

FMI: www.regionalaviationpartners.org