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Show Utah Agencies Criticize Airline For Delay in Improving Service Indications from Frontier Fron-tier Airlines this week that new and better schedules were not forthcoming for rural communities brought sharp criticism from the Chief Counsel for Utah Agencies, Eobert Campbell. Camp-bell. Campbell stated his objections ob-jections to the statements by Frontier that new service ser-vice would not be available even through increased subsidies had been granted the carrier recently and asked several questions of Frontier to determine just what the airline's position was. Included in the questions ques-tions were: "1. The experienced ex-perienced block hour costs of operation of the Frontier Fron-tier Convair 5S0, together togeth-er with a break - out of the method used in deriving such figure; 2. The experienced exper-ienced wheels-on wheels-off wheels-off cost of the Convair 530 per hour; 3. The experien. ced costs per unit stop for the 580; 4. The experienced experien-ced cost per mile unit for such aircraft; 5. The number num-ber of planned departures for calendar 1971 at Vernal Ver-nal and Moab; 6. The proposed pro-posed schedules and line pattern for service at Vernal Ver-nal and Moab for the calendar cal-endar year; 7. The total direct operating costs of both stations, including break - out of the component compon-ent parts of depreciation, return on investment and taxes, and aircraft operating opera-ting expenses; 8. Calculated Calcula-ted indirect operating costs for both stations; 9. Frontier's Fron-tier's estimated break even load factor or passengers per flight required at Both Vernal and Moab with and without consideration of subsidy support payments. 10. Of the total subsidy support which Frontier will receive in; fiscaal '71, what percentage or fraction frac-tion of the same is allocable alloca-ble to the stations at Vernal Ver-nal and Moab? Campbell stated that the agencies would like an explanation ex-planation of the seeming contradiction whereby Frontier has received major ma-jor trunk route authority with such awards being based on the premis that the carrier would receive reduced subsidy. The attorney at-torney said, "The resulting paradox of the local carrier car-rier urging the C.A.B. to reduce its subsidy in order to obtain new route authority auth-ority in a route proceeding proceed-ing on the one hand, and then to tell local commun, ities that it cannot provide anything more than token service because its subsidy sub-sidy has consequently been reduced and is at a low ebb on the other hand, remains unexplained to the Utah Agencies. We would encourage and welcome wel-come an explanation of this apparent dichotomy by Frontier." The feeling of Utah Agencies Ag-encies in the matter is that they expended considerable consid-erable effort in gaining the subsidy and now are, being informed that such effort was for nothing. Economic Ec-onomic Development Director Di-rector Don Hoffman also testified at the hearings on Frontier's behalf and stated that it was his feeling feel-ing that much time and money had been expended to gain the increased support sup-port for the airline and it had been his feeling that if the subsidies were grant-ted, grant-ted, the carrier would be able to resume services which were on the boards in 1968 when passenger boardings in this area numbered num-bered considerably more than they do now. Congress granted an appropriation ap-propriation to the local carrier industry of S50 million for the first nine months of fiscal 1971. This amount was to provide a better than healthy boost for the industry. |
