Air Transport

An environmental assessment continues to snag plans for commercial air service at newly-expanded Santa Fe Municipal airport in New Mexico.

Santa Fe aviation division director Jim Montman now expects FAA to finish a review of an environmental assessment for Delta Air Lines and American Eagle Airlines by November.

Delta and American Eagle had eyed December 2007 service launches, but the carriers postponed plans after FAA found "deficiencies" in the initial environmental assessment.

Delta moved its launch to March of this year at the earliest for Los Angeles and Salt Lake City service to be operated by former regional partner ExpressJet.

It is unclear how Delta will operate the service it if receives regulatory approval to do so after ExpressJet ceased flying on behalf of Delta on 1 September.

A Delta spokeswoman says she has "no announcement" regarding Santa Fe and could not confirm or deny if the SkyTeam alliance member was still interested in the market.

American Eagle did not set a new start date for Dallas and Los Angeles flights using Embraer ERJ-140 aircraft.

"When we receive approval, we will be able to re-evaluate our service," an American Eagle spokeswoman explains.

Delta and American hired contracting firm Landrum & Brown to conduct an environmental assessment as the airport transitions from turboprop-only service to turbojet service for the first time.

The airlines are able to enter the formerly Class 3 airport after FAA granted the facility a Class 1 certification, allowing the airport to manage commercial aircraft of any size. As a Class 3 airport, it had been restricted to aircraft from nine to 30 seats.

Great Lakes Aviation ended Santa Fe-Denver links in January and New Mexico Airlines suspended Cessna 208B Grand Caravan service between Albuquerque and Santa Fe at the end of December.