County to appeal rejection of air service subsidy
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It's possible the federal Department of Transportation may have had incorrect information and did not receive Chautauqua County's full application to have commercial air service returned to Jamestown. Because of this, the county is appealing the federal Department of Transportation's decision to reject an Essential Air Service subsidy.
Chautauqua County Airports Manager John Machemer sent an email to Legislature Chairman Pierre Chagnon regarding the issue.
"On June 26 the (DOT) issued Order 2026-6-23 denying the joint proposal submitted by the County and Southern Airways. The Airport has initiated a full review on the decision and is currently repairing a formal response to the DOT requesting correction of apparent factual errors and reconsideration of the County's complete proposal," he wrote. "Over the past several days, we have been diligently compiling supporting documentation, verifying records, and developing a clear and comprehensive reconsideration request. This work is ongoing and we remain committed to ensuring that the County's submission is accurately reflected and properly evaluated by the DOT."
The email was filed as part of the July communications to the county legislature.
Contacted directly, Machemer said the DOT miscategorized the size of the Jamestown airport. "We have drafted a request for consideration to the U.S. Department of Transportation asking for correction of the Buffalo Airport classification from a Medium Hub Airport to a Small Hub Airport as referenced in the most current National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems published on September 30, 2024," he said.
Machemer added that for some reason, their full application was not reviewed.
"The Department requested the full air service study commissioned by Chautauqua County and was provided only with a PowerPoint presentation. A full Air Service Study was completed in 2024 and properly filed in the docket contained within the full proposal," he said. "The study used modern data-driven methodologies drawing from DOT datasets, travel search behavior and census-based modeling to distinguish between resident and non-resident travel and validate demand profiles. The study information provided was intentionally constructed to provide transparent, actionable findings without overwhelming the reader with excess technical detail."
Machemer said they plan to have the request sent to the DOT by the end of this week.
County officials and Southern Airways have proposed scheduled commercial air service be restored from Jamestown with a new destination to Washington Dulles International Airport to provide direct connectivity to a major domestic and international hub. The proposed service would operate on a schedule accommodating both business and leisure travel, with two daily round trips, Monday through Saturday.
Jamestown lost commercial service when the DOT terminated Essential Air Service eligibility for Jamestown in January 2018. That decision was made because the local airport wasn’t meeting the federal standard of 10 passengers a day nor the federal government’s $200 per rider subsidy cap.