On March 1, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Essential Air Service program issued a request for proposals to be considered for scheduled air service for the Cortez Municipal Airport. The contract will begin Oct. 1 and last for two or four years.
Advanced Air LLC and the current airline, Key Lime Air Corp. (Denver Air Connection), submitted proposals before the April 1 deadline.
Residents have until May 2 to submit comments to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Both airlines were invited to present proposals to the Cortez City Council on April 23.
The Advanced Air proposal can be found online at https://bit.ly/AirDOT and the Denver Air Connection online at https://bit.ly/LimeAir.
Comments for consideration can be submitted online at https://bit.ly/CortezAir or by emailing DOT Essential Air Service representative Scott Faulk at scott.faulk@dot.gov.
Denver Air Connection was founded in 1996 and has been serving Cortez for 1½ years, with service to Denver and Phoenix on their Fairfield Metro 23 aircraft.
“We are excited for an opportunity to extend our partnership with the Cortez community we sincerely wish to continue our partnership and take great pride in the service and relationship that we have developed over the past year-and-a-half,” the proposal said.
Advanced Air’s proposal described the airline as an “innovative, service-oriented aviation company” that is based in Hawthorne, California. Their headquarters are about 3 miles from Los Angeles International Airport.
The airline was founded in 2005 by Levi Stockton, and the airline has 16 aircraft of various sizes and styles.
“Our successful growth is driven by our adherence to our core values of safety, security, teamwork and reliability. We are in this business for the long run and take a disciplined, thoughtful approach to growth opportunities. We value enduring customer relationships built on mutually beneficial outcomes,” the proposal said.
The airline operates in California and New Mexico, offering services to Albuquerque, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
The proposal said that they have a 98% completion record and 95% on-time record, as well as zero accidents in their nearly 20 years of service and serving 45,000 annual passengers.
The Department of Transportation said that the anniversary subsidy rate is $6,410,791 and the second year is $6,603,115.
