Top city officials from Chadron and Alliance are meeting today with Great Lakes Airlines CEO Charles Howell to explore ways to improve air service to their towns.

Great Lakes serves both under a 2-year Essential Air Service contract approved last year by the U-S Department of Transportation, but in February cut one of the two required daily Denver flights and all Saturday service because of shortage of pilots.

Chadron City Manager Wayne Anderson says he and airport manager Milo Rust and their Alliance counterparts J-D Cox and Lynn Placek don’t have anything specific planned for the meeting with Howell.

Anderson says the current level of service simply isn’t acceptable in terms either frequency or timing of flights.

Great Lakes blames its pilot shortage on FAA rules implemented last year that sharply increased the number of flight hours required to be a commercial pilot and the number of rest hours between their flights.

The airline says the major carriers raided it and other regional airlines for their experience pilots, leaving them shorthanded while a new wave of pilots gets the required amount of experience.

The new rules apply only to airliners holding more than 10 passengers, so Great Lakes has removed 10 seats from several of its 19-seat Beechcraft 1900s…bringing them under the limit so that they can be flown by less-experienced pilots.