Airport board recommends Great Lakes Airlines

The Cape Girardeau Airport Advisory Board voted without dissent Wednesday evening to recommend that Great Lakes Airlines be given the contract to provide commercial passenger service from the airport to St. Louis.

The board's vote, with seven of the nine members present, will now go before the Cape Girardeau City Council for action. The council has a special meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. today to consider the choice.

The preferred route would have Great Lakes provide 19 roundtrip flights each week from Cape Girardeau to St. Louis-Lambert International Airport. Great Lakes was vying with Air Choice One, a company in Farmington, Mo., for the contract to replace Big Sky Airlines, which pulled out of the Cape Girardeau market Jan. 7 after about six weeks of flights to Cincinnati.

The final decision on which airline will receive the contract will be made by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The department subsidizes air service for Cape Girardeau under the Essential Air Service program.

A department spokesman said earlier this week that a final selection will likely be made next week.

Neither airline will be ready to serve Cape Girardeau immediately, and it could take several months for service to begin.

For more, check back at www.semissourian.com or read Thursday's Southeast Missourian.