Our neighbors in central Missouri are enjoying their new service to Memphis. The Columbia Tribune reports:

“A month after more than 100 hopeful onlookers gathered at Columbia Regional Airport on Aug. 19 to celebrate Mesaba Airlines’ first flight from Columbia to Memphis, much of the fanfare is gone, but one thing remains: passengers, and more of them than the airport has had in awhile. During its first 30 days of service, Mesaba took 1,097 passengers to Memphis, which beats the previous carrier’s monthly passenger average by 220 percent.”

Mesaba uses the Saab 340 on the route. It’s a prop driven plane that’s typically configured to hold 37 passengers.

It will be interesting to see how long this service will last — particularly in light of the weak economy, high fuel prices, and the generally poor health of the Essential Air Service program.

After being without commercial air service the past several weeks, the airports in Joplin and Columbia are gearing up for the return of service.

Mesaba Airlines begins service between Columbia and Memphis on August 19. Great Lakes Airlines begins service between Joplin and Kansas City on September 8.

Both services lost  their Essential Air Service earlier this year due to the business turbulence in the airline industry. Now, the challenge for both cities is keeping service.

Read more in the Columbia Tribune.

Bad news for our friends in Joplin…

The Joplin Globe reports, “A disruption in commercial air service already was on the horizon for the Joplin Regional Airport, but an announcement Monday seemed to put its scope more in question. City officials disclosed that the airline that recently was awarded the Joplin contract has backed out of the agreement.”

Air service in Joplin has been subsidized by the federal government under a program called Essential Air Service. Problem is, the airline economy is so bad, even a subsidy won’t keep service in many small markets.

Columbia is getting a new EAS airline. EAS in a federal program that subsidizes air service in small communities. In Missouri it includes Joplin, Columbia, Kirksville and Cape Girardeau. In Arkansas it includes Harrison and several other towns. Without EAS, these places would probably not have any commerical air service.

Several months ago Air Midwest said it was leaving many of these markets. Now, we’re finding out who will replace them in Columbia. The Columbia Tribune reports that Mesaba Airlines will provide service between Columbia and Memphis—three flight a day.

Mesaba is a subsidiary of Northwest Airlines. It’s interesting to note that Mesaba is pursuing EAS markets—even in the shadow of the pending merger between Northwest and Delta.

Essential Air Service is a semi-frequent topic of discussion on this blog. Here’s an entertaining read on what the author considers an “essentially defunct” service.

Carlyle wants to know about the lack of air service between here and Kansas City:

Do we know why there is no longer air service to Kansas City from Springfield?  I usually fly out of Springfield, but I recently discovered that Joplin offers flights going East (Washington & Boston) that are consistently $200 cheaper than from Springfield. Of course, these flights connect to Midwest Airlines in Kansas City from Joplin via US Airways Express, a service we USED to have from Springfield. Do we know if there’s any plan to remedy this problem in the future?  Being undercut by the Joplin airport doesn’t reflect very well on the Springfield airport or its plans for expansion, and having direct access to the Kansas City Airport with all its low cost carriers and competition would go a long way to keep our fares competitive.

US Air Express used to fly between here and Kansas City with 19-seat propeller driven airplanes. Over time passenger numbers dwindled and the airline finally pulled the service in the late 1990’s. Bottm line: the airline pulled the service because of low ridership. Due to changes that have occurred in the industry since then (like St. Louis no longer being a TWA hub), we suspect the service would do better today. Unfortunately, it’s not likely to happen anytime soon.

As we understand it, US Airways feels that we are not a good fit for its network (I should explain the jargon “network.” In the context of an airline, network refers to the different routes the airline flies and how those routes connect to one another via the airline’s hub airports).

There are several airports, two to ten times our size, which the airline doesn’t service to the east or at all. And there are several smaller airports that the airline doesn’t serve that would fit better into its eastern route network. And recently the airline’s fleet growth has been relatively flat. In short, the airline is cautious about expansion, and when it does it expand, it has bigger fish to fry that fit better into its network. This cautious approach is being taken by all airlines right now as the economy gets worse and fuel prices rise.

As for the service in Joplin…

Joplin has Essential Air Service (EAS). EAS is a federal subsidy program that pays airlines to serve very small markets. In this case, Mesa Airlines provides service between Joplin and Kansas City, using code shares with US Air Express and Midwest Airlines. Subsidized routes often have lower fares than non-subsidized routes. We are WAY to big  to qualify for EAS service.

“Watcjer” pursues a couple of great questions in follow-up to last week’s posting “Cheaper Fares in Tulsa:”

“I frequently fly to west coast. As usual…I can fly out of JOPLIN or FAYETTEVILLE cheaper than Springfield. I usually purchase on cheaptickets.com. At present, for a fall trip, I can fly out of either JLN or XNA for $343.00 roundtrip. It costs $510.00 out of Springfield. Why can they have competitive pricing? Are their markets larger too?”

The Joplin airport has Essential Air Service (EAS). EAS is a federally funded program which provides small cities with a “minimal level of scheduled service.” Bottom line: Joplin’s air service is subsidized by the federal government. In this case, two airlines are guaranteed a certain amount to fly from that market. Generally speaking, flyers pay a minimal fare. Here’s a news story on the subject from the Joplin Globe.

Fayetteville is a different story altogether and I’m going to quote myself from an earlier post…

The question can be answered in one word: Wal-Mart. The NW Arkansas Airport benefits from the large concentration of national corporate offices in the area (Wal-mart, J.B. Hunt, Tyson Foods, etc.). This is why it’s possible to fly nonstop from NW Arkansas to places like Miami, New York City and Los Angeles.  The service is provided due to the large number of business people making the pilgrimage to corporate Wal-Mart. Did you know that Wal-Mart requires potential vendors to come to Bentonville to make their sales pitch? Earlier this summer the Wall Street Journal reported that that airport has the third highest ticket prices in the country due to all the business travel. Take a look at the coverage given the Journal story by a Fayetteville TV station.

In 2006 Springfield moved 862,611 passengers. Northwest Arkansas moved 1,172,049. Bottom line: it’s a bigger market, with a larger percentage of business traffic, which is driven by the corporate offices in the area.