American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth), branded as American Eagle, will continue to provide Essential Air Service (EAS) regional jet flights on the Watertown, NY to Philadelphia International city pair from February 1, 2020, following the award of the route by the US Department for Transportation (DOT) in late January. Its existing EAS agreement on the 250-nautical mile (462-kilometre) sector ended on January 31.
The airline's service will again be flown 12x weekly by the E145 fleet operated under the American Eagle brand by Piedmont Airlines (PT, Salisbury, MD). The two-year contract will attract an annual subsidy of USD3,588,908.
In awarding the EAS, the DOT said: "American has served Watertown for nearly a decade and during that time has provided reliable EAS. American’s service will continue to provide Watertown passengers seamless connectivity and global access at its Philadelphia hub. The Department finds the service and subsidy to be reasonable and notes that, with this selection, American’s subsidy will have decreased by USD360,738 annually, thus providing savings for the Federal Government."
Piedmont, a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth), presently operates a fleet of sixty E145(LR)s. Its main operating bases are in Philadelphia and also at Charlotte International.
There are no other scheduled services presently offered from Watertown apart from the American Eagle link from Philadelphia.
