Pacific Wings will offer the flights under a federally subsidized essential air service program. The company will replace Mesa Airlines, which currently holds the contract that expires May 31.

Pacific Wings will provide two one-stop round trip flights daily between Hobbs and Albuquerque. The airline also will provide two nonstop round-trip flights daily between Carlsbad and Albuquerque.

The airline will use nine-passenger, single-engine Cessna Grand Caravan airplanes.

The decision comes less than a year after Mesa launched interisland service in Hawai'i, creating an airfare war with several carriers, including Pacific Wings.

The DOT decision, signed on March 30, comes three weeks after the Carlsbad City Council voted unanimously to recommend Pacific Wings for service.

"We couldn't do much until the order was signed by DOT. Now that it has been, we are working on securing airport spaces and all the other details that need to be worked out," Pacific Wings president Greg Kahlstorf said.

He expressed confidence that Pacific Wings will be ready to fly out of Carlsbad and Hobbs by June 1. However, he said there are provisions in place where federal officials could hold Mesa until Pacific Wings is ready to start its service.

"We don't anticipate that Mesa will have to be held over," he said.

Kahlstorf said to provide the best service for Carlsbad and Lea County, Pacific Wings is developing a Web site that should be operational within the next 10 days where residents can complete a survey.

"They will be asked to tell us where they live, how they fly, when they fly and where they travel to," Kahlstorf said. "We are going to give New Mexico an airline catered to how New Mexicans fly."

In addition to keeping the Albuquerque route — the only route offered to Carlsbad by Mesa Airlines — Kahlstorf said the Pacific Wings proposal also promised eventual flights to El Paso and other Texas cities such as Lubbock and Midland.