WILLIAMSTOWN — Despite the federal government shutdown, the Wood County Airport Authority is still planning to submit its recommended list of the Essential Air Service proposals for the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport to the U.S. Department of Transportation by its Oct. 30 deadline.

The Wood County Airport Authority met this week to determine the recommendation order of the three proposals submitted recently to the airport by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT).

Board Member Terry Moore said they have revisited the airline situation and “had some pretty good discussions” regarding what was happening.

“We looked at the order we put them in previously and the authority revoted the order,” he said.

The authority is recommending SkyWest’s proposal of 12 flights to Charlotte Douglas International Airport onboard CRJ700/900 aircraft under their American Airlines Codeshare Agreement as their first choice; Contour’s 12-weekly flights to Charlotte, N.C., on a regional jet is their second pick; and SkyWest’s 12 flights to Washington Dulles International Airport and/or Chicago O’Hare International Airport onboard CRJ200 aircraft under their United Airlines Codeshare Agreement as their third choice.

“We have observed that some other airports have gotten their choices above and beyond just being the low bidder,” Moore said. “We thought if that is a possibility then we would reconfigure our choices as our number-one choice is not the low bidder.”

Airport Manager Ben Auville said the USDOT offices are currently shut down due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.

“We still have our deadline that we are going to honor,” he said. “We will be getting that recommendation out.”

The three proposals were submitted in a second round of bidding after the USDOT’s original pick, Air Wisconsin, was unable to follow through on its initial bid and backed out of the awarded contract in September.

“The feedback they had received back was to keep the Charlotte connection,” Auville said of the first choice. “That weighed more.

“It was a 3-2 decision so it wasn’t unanimous.”

The second choice was a 4-2 vote and the vote was 3-2 for the third choice, he said.

“There were still differences of opinion,” Auville said. “That is still healthy for the government and for the negotiations of opinions.”

Keeping the Charlotte route was important because it is what people in this area have been flying for years and officials wanted to see if they could keep that familiarity in place, he said, adding the service was very reliable. Before the flights had to go through Beckley which could cause some delays due to the extra stop.

The current proposals remove that stop.

Officials also liked other options that the first SkyWest proposal afforded passengers.

“There was a good consensus that we liked going to Charlotte and we would like to go to Charlotte on a branded airplane so they would be branded as American Airlines (with the planes marked as being with American Airlines) and people would be able to use the American Airlines app and their points as well as using an American Airlines credit card,” Moore said. “We thought that would be a real plus. That is why we went that way.”

Moore also said the authority discussed flights would be done on a larger airplane and the authority discussed the ability of the airport to accommodate the higher security package that comes with that and looking if they could accomplish this without the airport paying significantly more for it.

Auville said they were looking at business travelers who might have meetings they need to get to and wanted to be sure they could provide reliable service to be able to grow that market locally.

“They don’t want to alienate the current customers who have been flying and relying on that service,” he said. “The goal is for us to ultimately get off essential air service and be self-sufficient, but you have to build your customer base.

“That is really where it all came down on.”

In other business, a 7K Run will be happening at the airport Saturday, Oct. 18 with registration from 8-9 a.m. with the race expected to start around 9 a.m. Auville said if there is fog that delays the airline they will wait until they get that plane off the ground.

“We measured out the courses here,” Auville said.

There will also be a 3K Walk and a Kids Race. The event is being put on by the airport and the River City Runners.

As of Tuesday, they had over 100 people signed up for the race.

They are expecting more by race day as people will see how the weather is and finalize their weekend plans.

“We are going to have a decent turnout,” Auville said. “It is an opportunity for people to get out and see the airport in a way they don’t normally get to do.

“People will be able to be out on the property and see how big it is and how big the runways are. We are not a little airport. We have sizable infrastructure here that can support a lot of commercial operations out here, not just the small airplanes.”

There will also be a Trunk or Treat event at the airport Saturday, Oct. 25, from 2-5 p.m.