*
The Irony Of It All
Brad Hollerbach

St. Louis Needs 'Essential Air Service'

Posted Wednesday, September 23, 2009, at 12:00 AM

Comments

View 15 comments or respond
Community discussion is important, and we encourage you to participate as a reader and commenter. Click here to see our Guidelines. We also encourage registered users to let us know if they see something inappropriate on our site. You can do that by clicking "Report Comment" below.
  • That's a good question Snoot.

    We could try emailing Cape Air's Vice President of Planning Andrew Bonney who was involved in the Cape Girardeau presentation. You can send a link to this blog if you like by clicking on the "email link" button right below the headline.

    His email address is abonney@flycapeair.com.

    Thanks for reading.

    -- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Wed, Sep 23, 2009, at 8:37 AM
  • Wow, they're going to do four flights a day? There were all of 431 passengers in 2008, which is about 1.18 passengers a day. Call me crazy, but four flights for a little over a passenger a day seems a little wasteful. Even assuming their numbers go up a little, it's still ridiculous.

    I agree that maybe dividing those flights to other destinations such as Chicago would be far more reasonable. I'm sure Cape can survive with one or two flights to St. Louis a day (not like it's really needed in the first place).

    -- Posted by almighty on Wed, Sep 23, 2009, at 8:52 AM
  • I emailed the following to Mr. Bonney:

    Dear Mr. Bonney,

    I wrote the following blog regarding the Essential Air Service selection for Cape Girardeau. Everything I've read about your company sounds first-rate. However, I believe that your airline's proposal to fly to St. Louis is a disservice to both the travelers from this area and your company. The fact of the matter is that STL is a dying airport hub and everyone who travels from our market knows it.

    I believe that flying to Chicago would be significantly better for the travelers from our region resulting in full flights for your company. I understand if the fares would have to increase to compensate for the greater distance, but I believe that no one here with any sense would complain about the higher commuter ticket prices.

    Thanks for listening.

    Brad Hollerbach

    -- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Wed, Sep 23, 2009, at 9:02 AM
  • I agree with your suggestion if you are planning on spending time in airports. Chicago if VERY well known for its delays. I have NEVER flown through Chicago without a delayed or cancelled flight. I have made it a point for several years to avoid any flights that transfer through Chicago. You might want to check out http://delaystats.aircraftdata.net/airport-delays/allairports.aspx They seem to verify my experience.

    -- Posted by Professor_Bubba on Wed, Sep 23, 2009, at 3:27 PM
  • That's a good point, Professor Bubba. Airports with delays can be a bear. However, I didn't see that as being an issue between the two Chicago airports and St. Louis on the link you posted.

    The most recent data was from July 2007 and it showed that Midway had a 75% overall on-time rating (8252 flights), Ohare had a 70% overall on-time rating (32,047 flights) and St. Louis had a 69% rating (5565 flights).

    What we need is fresher data to evaluate, but I found nothing doing a cursory search of the web. While I personally favor Chicago as a destination, I could be convinced otherwise.

    I just think St. Louis is NOT a good place for our regional carrier to fly to. You may not have airport delays at St. Louis, but due to the increasing lack of flights, you could have significant layovers just waiting for your flight or have delays at the other airports where you would have connecting flights.

    Thanks for reading.

    -- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Wed, Sep 23, 2009, at 4:02 PM
  • If it weren't for Southwest Airlines. I Believe that Lambert(STL) would already be known as the Old Airport that couldn't!

    -- Posted by agent573 on Wed, Sep 23, 2009, at 4:58 PM
  • Let's use British Airways.

    -- Posted by Egotistical_Bigot on Wed, Sep 23, 2009, at 5:21 PM
  • I agree about Southwest. Pickin's would be really slim at Lambert if they weren't there.

    E_B, I've heard flying BA is quite nice, but have never had the opportunity to use their services. The three times I've been to Britain, I flew TWA twice and American once -- all three direct from St. Louis. Aaaaah the good ol' days.

    I wonder if we could convince BA to operate a "commuter" service between Cape and Heathrow? That would be a hoot. Probably about as likely to happen as a snowball's chance in you know where.

    TFR

    -- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Wed, Sep 23, 2009, at 8:39 PM
  • Nil: You don't have to arrive at the Cape airport 60 minutes before your flight. Often times, you can arrive 15 minutes before your scheduled departure and you are good to go.

    Brad: Something you might want to keep in mind is that with EAS, is it even allowed to fly to a destination that is THAT far away?

    I am guessing from Cape to O'hare (you don't want to fly to Midway) the flight time would be about 1 hour 45 minutes (if not a little longer). Would you want to do that in a 9 seat plane?

    I have also read somewhere that O'hare won't accept smaller planes because they are too slow and hold up the rest of the traffic.

    -- Posted by SEMissouri70 on Thu, Sep 24, 2009, at 12:32 AM
  • I've looked over the EAS documentation from the Department of Transport and could not find any restriction as far as distance. They do mandate flying to either a large or medium hub which are legally defined by a given percentage of the overall annual boardings nationwide. Actually, IF the DOT allows Cape Air to use the 9 seaters that will be an exception to their other mandate of 15 seat planes.

    I would not be too crazy about flying in a Cessna for that long (I have spent about that long flying in a single engine Cessna about 10 years ago) but it would be a lot faster than driving and with the significant number of travel choices, I think it would be a fair trade.

    I couldn't find anything about O'Hare restricting smaller planes. That might be the case.

    I guess my primary point is there are better options than STL.

    Thanks for reading.

    -- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Thu, Sep 24, 2009, at 10:41 AM
  • Brad: Good points. I always like reading your blog.

    -- Posted by SEMissouri70 on Thu, Sep 24, 2009, at 11:43 AM
  • Not an expert at any level, but this doesn't all add up. We're talking hub and spoke. If the hub doesn't have any spokes, it becomes less of a hub. So fewer folks flying from smaller airports affects the success of the number of folks and flights from the hub - to other hubs. Sounds like the challenge has more to do with the lack of success of the smaller airlines that can't make it even with government subsidies. (Why doesn't that ever work - never mind) Cost of fuel, insurance, labor, legal, taxes - or any combination of these and other factors. Yeah, Chicago is an obvious choice - but gates are probably not available or too expensive. And I imagine they do restrict the size of plane. And they get the same type of weather delays as St. Louis. This is one of those feel good arguments that will quickly die on the vine. As long as small companies can survive flying a small number of passengers on small planes into small hubs, Cape may continue to hold on to local flights to bigger cities. Of course, small businesses may soon be an endangered species any hoo. 'Nuff said.

    -- Posted by blogbudsman on Thu, Sep 24, 2009, at 11:45 AM
  • If you get a private jet, Just_Me I bet you will have plenty of new found friends coming out of the woodwork -- including me!

    I won't be a complete mooch though. I'll bring the Grey Goose.

    TFR

    -- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Thu, Sep 24, 2009, at 3:11 PM
  • I'll make sure to wear my really, really, really opaque sunglasses for that Solarcaine application. Hope it comes in a spray bottle.

    If not, I guess I could pour it into my garden sprayer that I use on my roses and use it instead. As a bonus, it will help heal your papercuts AND you probably won't have to worry about contracting Black Spot!

    I haven't had iced shots of vodka in a long time. There was always a bottle in the freezer when we visited friends in the UK. Very tasty.

    TFR

    -- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Fri, Sep 25, 2009, at 9:20 AM
  • WSFMB! (Wiping sweat from my brow)

    Thank goodness for your honey! Dodged that bullet!

    -- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Fri, Sep 25, 2009, at 2:30 PM