Homer council to consider asking federal officials to review city air service

Homer Mayor Rachel Lord is asking the City Council to direct the city manager to request a U.S. Department of Transportation review of Homer's air service under the Essential Air Service program. The program was created to ensure small communities keep a minimum level of scheduled air service. The council takes up the resolution at 6 pm Monday.

The resolution would also have the manager work with the department, the state, airport officials and air carriers as needed, then report back to the council. It notes the city does not operate air service but can request a review and document local need. It sits on the council's consent agenda, where items pass in one motion unless a council member asks to move one.

The resolution calls reliable scheduled air service vital to Homer's residents, businesses, visitors, medical travel and emergency needs. Its reason: "Homer’s scheduled air service has become less reliable in recent years, and the City wishes to pursue every available option to secure dependable service for the community."

Lord said at the Oct. 12 meeting that she would bring the resolution.

Under the program, the department sets each eligible community's minimum service and may subsidize a carrier to provide it. Its 1998 table of Alaska determinations sets Homer's standard at 32 weekly departures to Anchorage, year-round, with up to two stops, on aircraft carrying 11 to 30 seats. Homer is not among the department's subsidized Alaska communities as of May.

The department says an eligible Alaska town may begin subsidized service once the last carrier files a proper termination notice and the department finds the town cannot be served without subsidy. Alaska communities are exempt from the program's minimum of 10 boardings a day and its per-passenger subsidy caps.

FAA figures show 22,117 boardings at Homer in 2025, down from 27,482 in 2024 and 34,682 in 2023.

The council packet includes no Homer flight data, only an April 2024 letter from Valdez City Manager John Douglas asking the department to seek carriers for that town: "Frequent cancellations, and changes to scheduled flights have often left our residents stranded in Anchorage with no other public transit options to return home."

In July 2024, the department found Valdez had about five weekly departures against a standard of 58 in summer and 44 the rest of the year. That December it chose Ravn for 14 weekly round trips to Anchorage at about $5.6 million in the first year.