Fort Dodge Regional Airport Joins Other Airports in Urging US DOT to Make a Decision on SkyWest Application

An application for an air service provider for several rural airports throughout Iowa, including Fort Dodge and Mason City, is in a holding pattern.

 The heads of airports in Iowa and Kansas met this morning for a virtual press conference to urge the US Department of Transportation to make a move on an application submitted in September 2022 by SkyWest Charter.

SkyWest is the current service provider at the Fort Dodge Regional Airport and in March of 2022 it requested to terminate its services at 29 airports due to the pilot shortage.

The group that met this morning included Rhonda Chambers of the Fort Dodge Regional Airport and Dave Sims of the Mason City Airport.

Sims discussed the frustration that is being felt by all of the affected airports and says there is no regulatory reason that SkyWest’s Charter authorization should be withheld.