The flight from Ironwood, Mich., to Chicago has been delayed several hours by weather, and the grandmotherly station agent is offering to make the eight waiting passengers free pizza. It’s all part of the folksy service at Air Choice One.

The airline operates a fleet of eight nine-passenger Cessna Grand Caravans resplendent in executive interiors with six slide/swivel/reclining single leather seats. And it is adding a pair of new Grand Caravan EXs with the Garmin G1000 system and TKS anti-icing. Air Choice flies with two-pilot crews, but there’s no beverage service, movies or in-flight Internet. There are no overhead bins, but there is space to bring aboard large purses or laptop bags and everything else usually fits in the underbelly cargo pods. Need a bathroom? Well, there is a chemical bowl under a three-place rear bench seat, but you really don’t want to do that–even on a two-hour flight. However, you do get large private-jet-class legroom and a nice view out the Caravan’s big windows while cruising low (at altitudes from 6,000 to 9,000 feet) and slow (155 to 180 knots). And you can’t beat the price: $153 round-trip from Ironwood to Chicago, less than it costs to feed gasoline into a midsize SUV ground pounding over the same route.

Passengers seated in the first row immediately behind the cockpit during summer months also get the added thrill of being able to see the pilots dodge those big magenta blobs on the weather radar. And once you get on the ground at O’Hare, you are treated to an up close and personal rolling tour of the north side maintenance hangars during a delightful 20-minute taxi in, often from Runway 27R/9L. “They’re quite proud of their real estate down there,” quipped one company pilot before takeoff.

The Chicago flights deplane at well worn Terminal 3. Reminiscent of simpler times, passengers step off the airplane onto the ramp and are greeted by the wafting odor of burning kerosene and the occasional pelt of precipitation, before being directed down a labyrinth bordered by Jersey wall that sends them past the luggage loading docks that service the jet bridge set and into the building and up the stairs to a real restroom. 

Benefits of Essential Air Service

Air Choice One provides service along a handful of U.S. Department of Transportation subsidized Essential Air Service (EAS) routes in the Midwest that connect cities such as Ironwood, Burlington, Fort Dodge and Mason City, Iowa; Decatur, Ill.; Jonesboro, Ark.; and Jackson, Tenn., to its twin hubs at Chicago O’Hare and St. Louis Lambert.

Air Choice One is able to offer passengers these flights for fares that cumulatively do not even meet direct operating costs because of the EAS subsidies it receives. EAS was formed in the wake of airline deregulation in 1978 to ensure that rural communities continued to receive air service. Initially, 15-seat or larger aircraft were mandated for these routes, which currently serve 163 communities. However, in 2011, Congress passed changes to the EAS program that were later signed into law (Public Laws No: 112-27 and 112-55). Those changes prohibited EAS to communities whose annual passenger subsidies were greater than $1,000, regardless of proximity to the nearest airline hub, and waived the requirement that communities receive EAS on 15-seat or larger aircraft.

That opened the door for airlines like Air Choice One, even though the U.S. DOT is moving to enforce the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2000 that bans subsidies for communities in the lower 48 states receiving per-passenger subsidies that exceed $200 unless those communities are at least 210 highway miles from a medium or large airline hub airport. At 219 miles from Minneapolis-St.Paul (Minn.) International, Ironwood just squeaks over the mileage limit. All EAS communities have until September 30, based on data from the previous calendar year, to ensure compliance with the $200 subsidy cap or face subsidy termination. Communities failing to comply with the cap can apply for a waiver and the DOT does not intend to engage in any enforcement action or show cause orders until next year, thereby giving the appeals process time to run its course. 

While using smaller aircraft on EAS routes makes airline service viable for small communities like Ironwood, population 5,183, it can also cause frustration with travelers used to carriers with more resources and flexibility to rebook passengers when difficulties arise. Such was the case in August for Diane Narey, who booked a flight on Air Choice One to visit friends in northern Wisconsin. Her flight from Chicago was initially canceled for unspecified “operational issues,” then reinstated but delayed. Her return flight was canceled twice in two days for weather, causing her to forfeit her ticket on a connecting airline, miss several unscheduled days of work, and ultimately drive 316 miles to Milwaukee and purchase a last-minute fare ticket home to St. Louis on Southwest. “This ‘bargain airline’ was certainly no bargain for me,” she said.