Cape Air having its fourth consecutive profitable year

Seth McDowell's holiday travels didn't involve a lot of hustle and bustle this year. He sat quietly at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport on Thursday waiting to catch his Cape Air flight to St. Louis. Getting through security was a snap. Parking was free.

"The price is right," McDowell said. "I wasn't going to spend 100 bucks for parking in St. Louis."

Thursday's flight was McDowell's first time using Cape Air, which has transported more than 10,000 passengers between Cape Girardeau and St. Louis this year.

With national airlines such as United, Delta, US Airways and just last month American Airlines having filed for bankruptcy, Cape Air is one airline that's seeing its bookings and profits grow.

"We look for very specific opportunities to connect smaller communities with the national air transportation system. We partner with all of the major carriers, but because we're serving a very closely tailored niche, we're able to really invest in exactly the right kind of service for smaller communities," said Andrew Bonney, vice president of planning with Cape Air. "We've done pretty well as a business and that benefits our communities, too."

Cape Air is having its fourth consecutive profitable year, with its 2011 revenue expected to approach $100 million, Bonney said.

The Hyannis, Mass.-based Cape Air, now beginning its third year of operations here, has seen a 12 percent increase in ridership to and from Cape Girardeau this year, compared to 2010.

"When we started there in 2009, ridership was a couple hundred passengers a month in the market. Many months this year, we've carried over 1,000 passengers a month," Bonney said.

This year, October saw the most Cape Air passengers with 1,081 people traveling on flights between Cape Girardeau and St. Louis.

"We continue to see growth," Bonney said. Cape Air's advanced bookings on Cape Girardeau flights are up 19 percent compared to the same time last year.

Cape Air opened a ticket office earlier this month at 420 Broadway in an effort to make the airline more visible in the community, Bonney said.

"It helps us be more a part of the community than we had been before," he said. "It's about selling tickets, but it's also about presence."

Tickets for Cape Air may also be purchased by calling 866-227-3247, on travel websites including Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity and through travel agents.

The company's success in Cape Girardeau is being duplicated in the other cities where Cape Air takes passengers to and from St. Louis. In 2011, Cape Air flew more than 70,000 passengers to St. Louis from Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., Kirksville, Mo., Cape Girardeau, Marion, Ill., Quincy, Ill., and Owensboro, Ky.

Cape Girardeau Regional Airport Board chairman Craig Bohnsack said Cape Air has proved to be more stable than previous airlines the city has worked with.

"We are very excited that we have an airline that is taking doing business with Cape Girardeau seriously," Bohnsack said. "What we sometimes find with our airlines is that they are in larger cities and they get the resources and the focus instead of us."

Bohnsack said he's pleased Cape Air is continuing to try to expand its services for Cape Girardeau residents, including offering a ramp-side interterminal shuttle so that passengers do not have to clear security again when they arrive at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis.

This month, Cape Air began a new four-year contract -- the longest ever for a service provider at Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. Cape Air began services in Cape Girardeau in 2009, replacing previous carrier Great Lakes Airlines. The new contract runs from Dec. 1, 2011, through Nov. 30, 2015, and provides annual federal subsidies of $1.6 million through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Essential Air Service program, which helps keep air service in roughly 140 small communities.

Cape Air has a fleet of 70 Cessna 402C aircraft, which carry nine passengers, but the company is working with Italian aircraft manufacturer Tecnam to create the next-generation commuter airplane, Bonney said. The prototype, in development now, is expected to take its first test flight in the first quarter of next year.

Unlike Cape Air's current fleet, the new aircraft will be able to burn the same gasoline automobiles use, reducing the company's fuel costs, Bonney said. Cape Air's fleet now uses a special blend of fuel for small planes called Avgas. The company is the single largest consumer of Avgas in the U.S., a distinction the company isn't proud of, Bonney said. Avgas contains lead, and burning the fuel contributes significantly to air pollution, he said. There are also supply chain issues associated with Avgas, he said.

"It makes sense for us to migrate away from it," Bonney said.

Known as the Tecnam Traveler, the plane will also be faster, opening new markets with shorter runways to Cape Air, he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration has a rigorous process to evaluate new aircraft before they may be commercially licensed, Bonney said.

"We're aiming for entry into service in 2015," he said.

Cape Air is also continuing work on renovations to its terminal at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis, which was damaged in an April tornado. Bonney said the company has been told by airport officials to expect to move back into Concourse C next summer. In the meantime, it's operating temporarily out of the Concourse D, near the American Airlines gates.

mmiller@semissourian.com

388-3646

Pertinent address:

Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, Cape Girardeau, Mo