utilizing Cessna 208 Caravan single turboprop engine aircraft. On October 21, 2008, SeaPort Airlines was awarded a two-year government grant to provide commercial service from Portland to Eastern Oregon Regional Airport in Pendleton beginning December 1, 2008, replacing subsidized service by Horizon Air. On March 20, 2016, SeaPort Airlines ceased service to North Bend/Coos Bay, and PenAir began service on March 21. Mid-South service All of SeaPort's Mid-South service based at Memphis International Airport was federally subsidized under the Essential Air Service. On March 12, 2010, SeaPort won a two-year Essential Air Service (EAS) contract to provide three daily flights Sunday through Friday between Salina, Kansas and Kansas City International Airport and between Hot Springs, Arkansas and Memphis International Airport. As part of this growth SeaPort secured Department of Transportation approval to add daily flights between Kansas City International Airport and Harrison, Arkansas. In July 2011, SeaPort began service to Dallas Love Field from El Dorado and Hot Springs. In February 2013, SeaPort Airlines announced that its EAS contract for service to McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport in Jackson, Tennessee, had been extended by the U.S. Department of Transportation through January 31, 2014. The carrier had been awarded a one-year (rather than the typical two-year) contract due to the low number of passengers that used the flights operated by the previous carrier providing EAS, which had put Jackson’s continued eligibility for subsidized air service at risk. Following the 2014 phaseout of the Wright Amendment and the opening of a new terminal at Dallas Love Field, SeaPort had to share a single gate with Virgin America and lost its access to a permanent ticket counter; the resulting inconvenience and flight delays prompted SeaPort to transfer the Texas–Arkansas flights from Love Field to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston in September 2015. On January 16, 2016, SeaPort ceased service to Salina, Great Bend, and Kansas City, citing a nationwide shortage of regional airline pilots. Southwest service On May 1, 2013, the airline began service connecting Imperial/El Centro to San Diego and Burbank. The EAS contract was awarded to SeaPort in January 2013, replacing the incumbent carrier SkyWest Airlines, which linked Imperial to Los Angeles. In July 2014, SeaPort Airlines announced it would begin nonstop service between Burbank and San Diego on October 1, with four weekday flights each way, and reduced service on weekends. Later the airline added service to Sacramento and Visalia as