HOT SPRINGS, Ark.—Great Lakes Airlines, based in Cheyenne, Wyo., has been chosen by the federal Department of Transportation to provide subsidized service to three Arkansas cities that lost scheduled flights when Mesa Air Group withdrew from its contract.

The federal agency announced Great Lakes’ selection Thursday to provide scheduled airline service to Hot Springs, El Dorado and Harrison.

At Hot Springs, the agreement calls for Great Lakes to provide 12 weekly nonstop round trips to Dallas for an annual subsidy of $1,991,307.

After Air Midwest, a Mesa subsidiary, announced on May 14 that it would cease operations on June 30, DOT selected Hawaii Island Air to provide the subsidized service, but that airline backed out on June 6.

DOT then requested proposals for service to Hot Springs in addition to Harrison, El Dorado and Grand Island, Neb. Only Great Lakes and Multi-Aero Inc. of Farmington, Mo., submitted proposals.

Mayors or airport managers in each of the communities favored Great Lakes, mainly because of the size of the aircraft it would use to serve the cities.

Multi-Aero’s proposal was for 15 weekly nonstop round trips from Hot Springs to St. Louis using an eight-passenger, single-engine Cessna Caravan.

Great Lakes will fly a 19-seat Beech 1900 aircraft, the same airplane used by Air Midwest.

“Great Lakes is a well-established carrier and provides a significant amount of subsidized (service) throughout the country,” a DOT news release said.

Hot Springs Airport director George Downie said no date has been set yet for the service to begin.