Mesa pullout hampers Grand Island flights

Mesa Air Group Inc. announced Wednesday that it was shutting down its Air Midwest subsidiary, cutting off service to 16 small cities in Nebraska and nine other states because of soaring fuel prices.

Mesa said the cuts will begin next week and be completed by June 30.

The airline had already notified federal and local officials that it was ending its Essential Air Service flights to McCook and Grand Island.

McCook service has been taken over by Great Lakes Aviation. It begins daily flights to Denver International on June 1.

The flights will be operated by Great Lakes, which has code-sharing agreements with United Airlines at the Denver International Airport.

Great Lakes originally bid on providing flights from McCook to the Kansas City airport, but the McCook City Council prevailed on Great Lakes to bid instead for service to Denver. The Air Midwest service had been to Omaha.

At Central Nebraska Regional Airport in Grand Island, executive director Mike Olson said he got an e-mail Wednesday saying that service will end for sure on June 30.

But therein the problem: The new Essential Air Service provider, Island Air of Hawaii, won't start flights from Grand Island until late August -about a two-month gap from the end of Air Midwest flights.

Grand Island officials are talking to Island Air about starting the service earlier.