BILLINGS - Great Lakes Aviation will take over flights to seven Montana towns being dropped by Big Sky Airlines.
That's according to Great Lakes spokeswoman Monica Taylor. The Cheyenne, Wyo.-based company will take over service to Glasgow, Wolf Point, Glendive, Miles City, Havre, Lewistown and Sidney. Taylor says representatives for Great Lakes were in Billings yesterday. She also said Big Sky employees would be offered jobs with the company. Big Sky president Fred DeLeeuw was unavailable for comment Friday.
The Billings-based airline announced Wednesday that it would end its East Coast operations January 7th due to unusually bad weather, disappointing revenue and record-high fuel prices. An order from the Department of Transportation dated December 28th allows Great Lakes to take over Big Sky's federally subsidized Essential Air Service flights in Montana within about 60 days.
EAS is a program that offers air carriers federal subsidies to fly to small cities and towns that may be unprofitable to serve. Federal regulations require Big Sky to cut all of its EAS flights system wide because it was cutting its EAS flights in the East.