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U.S. Department DeputyAssistant Secretary 1200 New Jersey Avenue, S.E. of Transportation Washington, D.C. 20590 Officeof the Secretary of Transportation

Misty Korkow Clair

Dear Ms. Clair:

I amin receipt of your letter to theU.S. Departmentof Transportation(the Department) regarding the Department's decision selecting d/b/a Air Connection (Order 2021-4-7 issued April 13, 2021) to provide subsidized (EAS) at Pierre and Watertown, and your request to allow the City of Pierre's and Watertown's appeals to be addressed.

I appreciate your interest in this matter, which is currently pending beforethe Department. I assure you that the Departmentwill give fulland fairconsideration to thecommunities' petitions forreconsideration.

A copy of your letter and this response will be placed in public dockets DOT-OST-2011-0138 and DOT-OST-2001-10644 at www.regulations.gov.

Sincerely,

Joel Szabat Deputy Assistant Secretary forAviation and InternationalAffairs May 11, 2021

Mr. Joel Szabat Deputy Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs USDOT 1200 New Jersey Ave SE Washington, OS 20590

Dear Mr. Szabat,

My name is Misty Korkow Clair. I am a 24-year flight attendant with . I am a born and raised resident of Pierre, South Dakota. I have lived many places throughout our great country but have been home in our State Capital since 2005. I "commute" on the that provides the PIR-DEN service as I am based in Denver. The past two years with Skywest providing the EAS service has been a welcome and needed "fix" to our air transportation for the City of Pierre. Over the past years with the companies then Aerodynamics/ADI and with the increase of the pilots' flighthours needed to fly commercially our city has sufferedbadly as far as carrier performance.

The carrier for our EAS the past two years, Skywest, has absolutely upped the level of service by making it easy to book and check in forflights, check baggage and have current flight status available. Our rural folks aren't usually the most "frequent fliers" so they need as much ease of the process of doing so as possible. Skywest has been extremely reliable and consistent with available crew and aircraft if needed for any kind of delays that may arise.

Ground personnel in the industry are known for doing the job for the flight benefits available to them to fly non-revenue, standby on reciprocal carriers. They do not make much per hour and their hours at the PIR regional airport are minimum and sporadic. If there are no flight benefits offered by the carrier then it will be hard to get employees for our regional airport. Skywest employees have current reciprocity for flight benefits with all major and many regional carriers. Denver Air Connection (DAC), the newly named contract provider forPierre's EAS has none. No benefits for their employees on any airline. Especially with Pierre's low unemployment rate it will be nearly impossible for DAC to get ground staff.

I know the City of Pierre and also the City of Watertown were the only EAS locations that did not receive their preferred carrier in this current round of contractual awards. Please Denver Air Connection does not have the man power, fleet nor reservation system capabilities to provide respectable service for either city, especially our State Capital. On the homepage of the DOT website it states that your mission isto "improve the quality of life for all American people and communities, from rural to urban". Please do not direct our flying to take such a huge step backwards by having DAC be our service provider. do not impose an airline that is not qualified to provide the service contractully needed.

Denver Air Connection does not have the man power, fleet nor reservation system capabilities to provide respectable service for either city, especially our State Capital. On the homepage of the DOT website it states that your mission is to "improve the quality of life for all American people and communities, from rural to urban". Please do not direct our flying to take such a huge step backwards by having DAC be our service provider.

Please allow the City of Pierre's and Watertown's appeals to be addressed and looked at from the point of views I have provided. Please ask Zach, your DOT EAS contact, his personal thoughts as he has many years of experience and understands the setback that Denver Air Connection would be as the carrier for Pierre Watertown. Not providing Skywest the EAS contracts would be a major decline in our air infrastructure. Please meet that challenge as it's "your tum", as your website says!