Marketplace
![[SeMissourian.com]](http://www.semissourian.com/images/nameplate.gif)
|
|
Fair ~ River stage: 33.81 Rising Saturday, November 21, 2009 |
RSS
 Print
 Email link
 Respond to editor
 Read comments (17)
 Share link
Cape Air flies four passengers on first day of service between Cape Girardeau, St. LouisMonday, November 9, 2009
But what Phan didn't expect was to find himself the center of attention of local media, represented by a television crew and a reporter and photographer from the newspaper.
Phan had the distinction of being the first arriving passenger for Cape Air, which began its service between Cape Girardeau and St. Louis on Sunday with two departing flights and two arrivals. Phan was the only passenger on Flight 1129 and one of only four during Cape Air's first day of operation.
Phan admitted to being "a little bit nervous," because it was his first time on a small airplane. He will be living in Cape Girardeau and working at the King Nail Salon on North Kingshighway.
The first incoming flight arrived at 3:37 p.m., 21 minutes late because of baggage handling problems from Phan's Delta Air Lines flight from Las Vegas.
"Usually the first couple of days are quite slow," said Haynes, who said the Hyannis, Mass.-based company has opened about a dozen new markets in recent months.
Cape Air was awarded the two-year contract to serve Cape Girardeau on Oct. 22 by the U.S. Department of Transportation, giving the company only 16 days before the beginning of operations.
One passenger was on board the inaugural outgoing flight at 10:45 a.m. Sunday, and two were on the second flight to St. Louis at 5:01 p.m.
Tim Stinnett of Sikeston, Mo., was flying to St. Louis to make connections for a business trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Stinnett flies almost weekly for his job in the software business.
He said he flew on previous operator Great Lakes Airlines only a couple of times but stopped because "the schedules didn't work out." He said that if Cape Air maintains its published schedule of eight flights daily during the week and four more on the weekends, he will likely be a regular customer.
Jerry Feng flies between Cape Girardeau and New York City a few times a year. He flew Cape Air on Sunday to connect to a flight to Augusta, Ga. for pleasure.
Feng said he usually drives to St. Louis when flies out of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.
"But time was important to me this time," said Feng, who was surprised by the $49 one-way fare and said he will probably use Cape Air the next time he flies out of St. Louis.
"You'll see a big marketing push," Haynes said, predicting it would take "a few weeks to get up to speed," as far as passengers are concerned.
"We'll be pushing the connectivity," Haynes said, "and of course the $49 fares. We'll know we've succeeded when the passenger says 'why drive?'"
Cape Air schedule
The schedule for flights from Cape Girardeau to St. Louis via Cape Air, the new airline serving Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. as posted at the Cape Air website. There will be four roundtrip flights daily and two on each weekend day.
Weekdays
Departures Arrivals
Saturday
Sunday
Comments  Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please Login or Create an account first, and then you will be able to flag a comment as objectionable. Please also note that those who post comments on semissourian.com may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
|
Related links More stories
Enter your email address to subscribe to our mailing lists:
|
del.icio.us
Digg
StumbleUpon
Technorati
Newsvine
Facebook
Furl
Reddit
Google
![[Order this photo]](http://semissourian.mycapture.com/mycapture/remoteimage.asp?backtext=Return%20to%20site&backurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.semissourian.com%2Fstory%2F1585492.html&thumbpath=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.semissourian.com%2Fphotos%2F12%2F88%2F20%2F1288209-S.jpg&previewpath=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.semissourian.com%2Fphotos%2F12%2F88%2F20%2F1288209-L.jpg&pricingsheetid=920){kind=link}
![[Order this photo]](http://semissourian.mycapture.com/mycapture/remoteimage.asp?backtext=Return%20to%20site&backurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.semissourian.com%2Fstory%2F1585492.html&thumbpath=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.semissourian.com%2Fphotos%2F12%2F88%2F21%2F1288210-S.jpg&previewpath=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.semissourian.com%2Fphotos%2F12%2F88%2F21%2F1288210-L.jpg&pricingsheetid=920){kind=link}
what about the time it departs cape if you want them to leave from cape . the time is very importation
Well thank goodness for subsidies
Visit Larrybill.com and see what he says about EAS subsidies
so a 50 minute flight, for something that takes 90 minutes to drive.....and time at the airport etc. I can see flying to stl to fly out of stl, but i don't see the practicality of flying to go to stl itself.
CMGCEO,
How fast do you drive? maps.google.com reveals two hours and six minutes from "Cape Girardeau, MO" to "Lambert-St. Louis International Airport." 130 miles in 90 minutes possesses an AVERAGE speed of 86.7 MPH.
". . . the company isn't alarmed at the low number of passengers for the first day of service."
I hope they won't be alarmed at the low number of passengers for the 100th day of service, either!
One passenger was on board the inaugural outgoing flight at 10:45 a.m. Sunday, and two were on the second flight to St. Louis at 5:01 p.m.
And on top of that, a lonely one person flying into CGI. The government has no business pouring money into this airstrip. The airport averaged 1 person per day for the previous carrier. For the cost it makes much better sense in utilizing land transportation from Cape to St. Louis for connecting flights. The drive is a straight interstate and can be done in about an hour and a half. Cape doesn't strike me as a town that needs an airport, but I would have lived with air service to a real airport like Chicago or Memphis, but St. Louis is clearly like pouring money down the drain.
Beaker: Who wants to fly to Memphis? I don't. It costs a lot more to fly out of Memphis.
CMGCEO: I don't think anyone would fly to St. Louis just to go to St. Louis. I would fly to St. Louis to get a connecting flight to somewhere else. I think the 50 minute flight isn't actual flying time. Flying time is something like 30 minutes.
The problem is that we were stuck with a bad air carrier for a couple years with Great Lakes. The numbers were up before Great Lakes took over. The numbers drastically dropped when Great Lakes took over. What is the common theme?
I bet as people become familiar with Cape Air the numbers will start to go back up.
$49 one way? You can't beat it. BART charges $65 and it isn't a straight drive to the airport. You might have to pick up other people along the way. Plus, you get free parking at the Cape airport. No line for security checks (St. Louis can be awful if you hit the wrong time of day). And you don't have to pay a baggage fee. That alone will save you $20-$30.
I look forward to use the new service.
Once you fly into Lambert you have Metrolink there that can get you to Downtown, Union Station, Savis Center, The Dome, and Forest Park. I can think of several reasons to use it just for a trip to STL and back.
When you consider gas, traffic, and parking costs you're not going to come out ahead but it isn't that bad.
Some of you are showing your biases way too soon.
Give Cape Air a chance to build its business. I am thrilled for my family to see service again.
And for you who think you can drive to Lambert in 90 minutes, I don't want to be on I-55 while you are attempting it.
I'm OK with the carrier and I'm OK with the destination.
What I have a hard time with is the $4,000 per day it costs the taxpayers. $4,000 every single day and Cape, at it's best, has never had the passenger load to bring this down appreciably. Why? I just don't understand the justification. This is one part of the essential air program that isn't.
Beaker must average 86.7 MPH between Cape and Lambert. That's cool, just don't ******* tailgate me when I'm passing the 18-wheeler which has been varying its speed for the last 30 miles... I prefer to take it easy on interstates besides on-/off-ramps and ramps, in general. Don't pass me to slow down on a ramp!
Memphis is slightly better than Lambert but it costs slightly more and it is further away--and that depends on your destination/time usage/cost set of mind... [To me, Lambert > *.airport]
At the end of the day, some posters have nailed it. Why are we paying an airline to serve Cape Girardeau Regional Airport when there is simply no demand? $4,000.00/day, is that what it works out to? :furious:
Boardings/day info pulled from here: http://www.semissourian.com/story/158379...
Monday-Friday: 72 boardings/day * 5 days = 360 boardings
Saturday-Sunday: 36 boardings/day * 2 days = 72 boardings
Per week
Monday-Friday + Saturday-Sunday = 360 boardings + 72 boardings
= 432 boardings/week
Finances
$4,000.00/day * 7 days/week = $28,000.00/week
($28,000.00/week)/(432 boardings/week) =
$64.81/boarding
I'd say that's a reasonable estimation on what one person on a FULLY LOADED flight should pay.
$64.81/boarding * 9 boardings/flight =
$583.33/flight
Thus $583.33 - ($50 * # of passengers) is the cost to the taxpayer...
Wait!
$583.33 - ($49 * 9) = $583.33 - $450 = $142.33
Sure... we'll continue $49/one way trip for a while longer... :grumble:
I can remember a person that I knew flying out of Cape on TWE for SIX times the rate that they're offering now... and that was in the early nineties...
"Come fly with me" who sang that anyway? Was it Frank?
...and so it goes!
It is amazing that no one did their homework on Cape Air and their fleet.
Fleet grounded in 2007 for engine repair.
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/art...
Plane lands Sept 09 on one engine
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.d...
Sept 2008, Cape Air Cessna 402 crashes in Martha's Vineyard, shortly after take off, killing the pilot
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massach...
Cape Air pulled out of EAS contract in Indiana because they determined that they could not make money (Started Sept 07 - ended July 08). South Bend to Indy was main route. And they think that they can do better in 2009?
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/ju...
Dual engine failure, Jan 2009.
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.d...
Seems to be a string of recent problems. How long before these stories start showing up in the Missourian or the Post-Dispatch?
Anyone want to take bets on how long this will last? I say they will be gone by next June.
I'll keep driving to STL, thank you very much.
semoredhawk: I'd take that bet. I bet they are there beyond June 2010.