Some say commercial air service at the Chautauqua County Airport ended because passenger numbers plummeted.

Yet this misses the point. The worst part is that it distorts the problem. The real cause was not the drop in passenger numbers. Rather, the real cause was the decline in the quality of commercial air service.

Let us repeat: the real cause was the decline in the quality of commercial air service.

If quality had not declined, passenger numbers would not have fallen and commercial air service would have remained.

Good commercial air service can once again thrive at our airport.

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With that in mind, let’s pick up where we left off on May 12, 2023, with the good news that Chautauqua County government was taking a step toward resuming commercial air service at our airport.

The step was to study our commercial air services market. Such a study is a prerequisite for resuming commercial air service through the federal government’s Essential Air Services program.

In August, September and October 2024, the Chautauqua County Airport Commission learned that a phase of the study had been completed, that progress toward resuming commercial air service was being made, and that a presentation to the assembly County Legislature would be forthcoming on a project yet to come. date to be announced.

Airport Commission members and others who support commercial air service at our airport deserve enormous credit for their efforts.

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This is a good time to remind ourselves what decades of experience providing commercial air service at our airport have taught us. It’s as simple as good commercial air service. Bad commercial airline service fails. To be successful, commercial air service must be good.

This is also a good time to remind ourselves not of our wish list for great service, but of the non-negotiable minimum for good service.

Can we compromise? Yes, above the minimum, not below. You can bet that sub-minimum commercial air service will fail. We went there and we did it.

No more.

Nor should we start with sub-minimum commercial air service and aspire to build it up to the minimum. This will also fail. We’ve been there and done that too.

No more.

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Decades of experience providing commercial air services at our airport have taught us that the minimum includes all of the following:

– Service on or sufficiently connected to a major airline to a hub airport of the major airline. Flying to and from a major airline hub without connecting minimizes the number of connections you need to make. Since Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh are not hubs, flights to and from these airports are unacceptable.

– Good planes. We do not need and will not have large jets. Still, no one wants to fly on something that’s slightly sturdier than a washing machine or looks like it belongs in the Flintstones.

– A plane at our airport during the night. This means that the morning flight will not be canceled just because the plane is coming from somewhere else and cannot land in the morning fog.

– Early departure flights and late flights. Such flights allow passengers to arrive at their destination without missing a bite of the middle of their day.

– Service that is also sufficiently frequent to meet the needs of our airport market. We don’t need hourly flights, even on weekdays. Still, we need enough flights.

– Competitively priced service with service to and from Erie and Buffalo. Passengers are willing to pay a little more to avoid driving to and from Erie or Buffalo. But not hundreds of dollars more. For hundreds of dollars they will go to Erie or Buffalo. However, some will even go to Cleveland or Pittsburgh.

– Baggage control service between our airport and final destinations. Passengers do not want to check their bags longer just to fly to or from our airport.

– Reliable service. No means of transportation is infallible. Not even close. Still, it needs to be as reliable as the service to and from Erie and Buffalo.

– Rebooking service at our airport to final destinations, and vice versa. When passengers traveling to or from Erie or Buffalo need to change their itinerary en route, they can, in one stop, at any airport anywhere along the route, do so up to to their final destination. Passengers traveling to or from our airport should be able to do the same. Each passenger will be well advised to book, and should be able to book, all their flights, including any flight to or from our airport, on a single ticket.

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Do not be surprised when some object to our participation in the Essential Air Services program and assert, in support of their position, that the program is a government subsidy.

Yes, it is a government grant. Even Adam Smith recognized that government intervention in the free market is acceptable when the free market fails.

We especially don’t need lectures on the free market from people who delight in government subsidies for the projects they support.

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Dr. Randy Elf’s May 12, 2023 column on commercial air service at the Chautauqua County Airport is available at and

COPYRIGHT 2024 BY RANDY ELF