The Sioux City Gateway Airport have recommended that the city stay with its current flight provider rather than accept a proposal from a new carrier..
SkyWest said in March that they were dropping 29 airports due to a pilot shortage. That left Sioux City open to proposals from airlines to become their new essential air service provider.
The only application was from Boutique Air. It proposed 28 flights to Minneapolis each week on a 9-passenger prop plane. Airport Board president Joe Kruse says he didn’t think the proposal fit Sioux City’s needs.
KRUSE [:10] “For a market the size of Sioux City, you know, in general, what are we 125,000 People in the metro, I just don't think a plane that, you know, it holds eight or nine seats is going to be it's going to work for us.”
Instead, the airport negotiated a deal with SkyWest to reduce the number of flights to just one a day. That means cutting one of its locations – Chicago or Denver – until SkyWest overcomes its hiring obstacles.
A federal trial date has been set for a lawsuit against Western Iowa Tech Community College. The Sioux City school is being sued by 8 students from Brazil for human trafficking.
The students allege school officials and local companies recruited them for educational internship programs. But when they arrived, the plaintiffs say they were forced to work 50 hours a week at either a pet food company or a food processing plant. They say they were required to work to pay off room and board and tuition expenses – which they allege the school promised were free. The school denies these claims.
The trial is set for January 8th of 2024. Another lawsuit brought forth by 14 students from Chile is alleging the same charges. That case recently survived a round of legal challenges and will be proceeding to federal court, according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
Western Iowa Tech offers a one-year diploma program to become a professional translator. Applications can be found at w i t c c dot e d u.
