To The Reader’s Forum:

I have read all of Dr Randy Elf’s letters and comments on commercial air service to and from Jamestown. While I have many thoughts on this subject based on as much personal experience as a passenger to and from the Jamestown airport as anyone in Chautauqua county over many years, and even taking flying lessons at the Jamestown airport with instructor Andy Nord, Dr. Elf needs to tell us what is (or is not) a “good airplane”. If he doesn’t know, perhaps we should ask an airplane manufacturer – maybe Boeing ?

Mr. Fred Larson spoke in support of attempted restoration of commercial air service at the release of the Air Service Study on Thursday, 12/19. Unfortunately, between him and Mr. Evan Berg, I did not hear anything that had not been done or tried before. I thought this study was intended to make an objective assessment of the feasibility of restoring successful service to Jamestown. Instead it appears to have started with the conclusion that it is feasible and worked backwards to try to justify that conclusion.

So much for objectivity.

If the fares charged during the last years that the EAS subsidy was in force were any lower, the next step would have been to pay passengers to use the flights. One of the main reasons Jamestown lost the EAS subsidy/designation was that ridership was so low that many flights were near-empty and Jamestown did not come close to meeting EAS ridership requirements. Presumably Bradford did and still does. Didn’t Southern Airways have the same pilot shortages, etc in Bradford that it did in Jamestown? Jamestown has already proven that neither subsidies nor low fares increase ridership. I commented about that in prior letters to The Post-Journal on this very subject.

With all due respect to Dr. Elf, having “good airplanes” has no real meaning. Jamestown’s runway length and the general direction of commercial aviation towards larger planes limits what is even available in a small community. Another EAS subsidy likewise is not the answer to anything, except to provide Jamestown two more years to either figure out how to make the Jamestown air routes profitable, supported by Chautauqua County’s businesses/industry and populace, or go through this same wasteful foolishness two years down the road when they again lose the subsidy.

Fred L. Cohen

Jamestown