WAYNESBORO — Persistent cancellations and late flights by its commercial carrier has led Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport to ask the U.S. Department of Transportation to rebid flight service for the Weyers Cave airport.
Airport Executive Director Greg Campbell said the carrier, ViaAir, has been inconsistent in its delivery of service after getting a contract to provide daily flights to and from Charlotte and twice-weekly service to and from Orlando, Fla., last November. Recently, more than half of the flights ViaAir is contracted to provide to and from the airport have been delayed or canceled, Campbell said.
Airport Commission Chairman Gerald Garber wrote the Department of Transportation on Friday and said that during the past 60 days, “service has deteriorated to an unacceptable level once again.”
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The letter from Garber states that “the inconsistent nature of the current service has rendered it unreliable and the repeated failure to execute the published schedule has greatly inconvenienced and disappointed a great number of our residents.”
After initial problems generated numerous customer complaints, ViaAir promised to improve its service.
In a Feb. 24 letter outlining plans to reduce cancellations and delays, ViaAir chairman Ami Vizer told U.S. Deputy Assistant Transportation Secretary Susan McDermott that the airline was adding technical personnel for maintenance of aircraft, and had signed agreements with two leading maintenance and repair facilities.
Vizer also said the the airline had finalized a ticket and baggage arrangement with a "legacy air carrier'' that will provide "hundreds of connections" in Charlotte. He added that ViaAir has "a comprehensive internal evaluation program through both our safety and quality control departments."
"We acknowledge that we have had some problems over the past few months,'' Vizer said in the February letter. "However, we are confident that our corrective actions, enhancements to the workforce, and the addition of an interline agreement has resulted in the capability to not only provide the service required, but to also appropriately respond to irregularities."
And ViaAir's service did, in fact, improve for a time in March and April.
But the problems, including missed flights, delays and a growing number of customer complaints, have returned in recent months. What's more, Campbell said the airport recently contacted ViaAir about the service issues, but has received no reply.
Should the DOT agree to rebid the service, Campbell said the entire process of securing a new air carrier could take about four months. The DOT must make the decision because ViaAir’s contract for SVRA is with the transportation agency, not the airport itself. When ViaAir was selected, Campbell said the airline had a 98-percent reliability record.
Campbell said after eight months of dealing with ViaAir “things do not seem to be on a path of consistently being reliable.”
Garber says as much in his letter to DOT.
“We have been patient; we have tried to be helpful where we could, but we have to advocate for our community," Garber said in concluding his letter. "We respectfully request that the DOT move to an immediate rebid of our EAS market."