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Show fine if we can keep it TV now sfhetiulos inaugurated this week by Frontier Airline bring Moab the finest set of flights and connections the community has ever had. This should he indication that tV airline is willing to provide pro-vide the right kind of service to attract all it can in passenger traffic from, this community. And it should be very helpful to the economic interests now working work-ing in this area. One shadow on the service, however, is a recent application by Utah Agencies in Salt Lake City, which could have a (Urimsntal effect on not only Moab. but every other rural community in Utah fortunate enough en-ough to have airline service (there are only two others, oth-ers, Vernal and Cedar City). Utah Agencies includes a ncmher of State of Utah agencies involved in industrial promotion, etc., the Utah Attorney General's office but most significant, signifi-cant, the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce. The organization, formed in January to promote improved airline service for Utah, has done what we feared most formulated a plan to improve Salt Lake City's Ritual ion by connecting it more adequately with large cities a long ways away and ignoring the itnerests of the rural communities in the State, who depend on the m-any-stop, short haul small airlines to maintain their air ties with the outside. If Frontier Airlines, or for that matter, Bonanza Bonan-za which serves western Utah at Cedar City, are forced to compete with the larger lines in non-stop flights from other large cites in the west, there is little doubt that pinches will be made in service in the country towns. We commiented editorially in January that the Utah Agencies effort was long overdue. The State should have baen attempting to improve Utah's airline air-line ties with the rest of the nation. But if the effort does include for its greatest effect, ef-fect, official ageiTcis's of the State of Utah, it should represent the entire state. We voiced our fears in January Jan-uary at the inclusion of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce in the organization. It now appears that oar fears might have been justified. |