Mesa bested Great Lakes Airlines and Salmon Air, the company that currently provides passenger service to Moab, to win the contract for flights between Moab and Salt Lake City. The company also will assume the contract for service from Vernal to Salt Lake City under the proposal approved this week by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which oversees the EAS program that subsidizes passenger flights to rural airports across the country.

Officials from Moab, Grand County and Uintah County supported Mesa Airlines, in part, because the firm proposed using a pressurized 19-passenger Beech 1900D airplane. Salmon Air has been flying eight-seat, nonpressurized Piper Chieftains. Grand County Administrator Nancy Woodside said the larger Beech models have room for bicycles and other bulkier baggage and will aid passengers - especially ones with breathing problems - who find flying difficult on nonpressurized planes.

Mesa Airlines also has agreements with most major air carriers, enabling passengers to book tickets online at travel sites, check baggage and purchase single tickets to their final destinations. It also is a larger airline that Woodside hopes, with marketing and advertising, will boost the number of passengers coming to Moab.

"It opens up economic development to us in a way that we have never seen," Woodside said. "We felt very strongly that Mesa was the best choice."

Jeffrey Hartz, Mesa Airlines senior analyst, says the company expects to take over service from Salmon Air within 90 days. He said the price for an advance-purchase, round-trip flight to Moab should average about $138. He added that the company, which also will begin service to Cedar City in May, hopes to establish a strong presence in Utah.

Mesa Airlines also operates as U.S. Airways Express and America West Express.

"We see Moab and Vernal fitting in very nicely for us in creating a sort of mini-hub in Salt Lake City," Hartz said.

lchurch@citlink.net