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dius around the airport, and the remaining travelers always drove to the larger airports in Sioux Falls or Rapid City. He said they've lost another 10 percent of their market.
• • Jim Ellenbecker, owner of Budget Blinds in Pierre, recently opted to drive to Rapid City for a flight rather than risk a cancellation out of Pierre. The drive is around three hours.
• • "I don't prefer to drive somewhere to catch a flight," Ellenbecker said, but he added: "The number of flights going out seems to be inconsistent."
• • Before August 2013, the airline offered eight daily flights out of Pierre. The count dropped to four, until a fifth trip was revived.
• • Great Lakes recently pulled out of North Dakota airports. Delta Air Lines and United Airlines fly to oil patch airports in that state.
• • The airline did not return repeated requests for comment. But in a statement, Great Lakes CEO Charles Howell, said, "the company feels it is in the best interest of our customers, communities and employees to suspend service from these stations until we are able to rebuild our staff of pilots in order to provide reliable service."
• • In another effort to cope with the regulations, Great Lakes is removing 10 seats from some of its 19-seat planes.
• • Should Great Lakes try to pull out of Pierre, Isaacs said it wouldn't be able to leave before the airport found a replacement. He said the airport is always looking for more airlines to fly out of Pierre.
• • If the city needed it, it could qualify for Essential Air Service dollars to encourage an airline to stay. Pierre has qualified for the program in the past. But overall, Isaacs said, there's not much that regional airports can do to help the airlines' struggle.
• • Pierre Mayor Laurie Gill said she has been doing what she can, talking with airline representatives and with U.S. lawmakers. She said commercial air service in rural America has faced challenges for the past few decades.
• • "There are a lot of people working on it," Gill said. "Please continue to have faith in the Pierre Regional Airport."
• •

• • SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A jury ruled Wednesday a man accused of killing a Sioux Falls hospice nurse as part of a plot to assassinate President Barack Obama is eligible for the death penalty.
• • The sentencing trial of James McVay, 43, will now enter a second phase, in

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