Cape City Council approves airport carrier change

The decision over the airline for the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport took up the majority of the Cape Girardeau City Council meeting for the second time this month.

Council members voted unanimously to change service from current provider SkyWest.

Contour Aviation will serve as the airport's new carrier service, pending approval of the change from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The service will provide 12 flights a week from Cape Girardeau to Nashville, Tennessee, and possible further connections with checked bags through American Airlines.

Mark Chaifetz, CEO of the newly approved carrier service, came to the meeting to speak with council members and answer questions about Contour's plan.

Chaifetz spent most of the time highlighting what he said were the two most important things to a regional airport carrier — scheduling and reliability — and how Contour could provide them.

He said Contour has been relatively immune to the pilot shortage that contributed to SkyWest's initial termination of service in Cape Girardeau in March.

"We are hiring from a different pool, and that's largely insulated us from the issue," Chaifetz said.

Chaifetz said the airline designation as a part 135 carrier — a designation for charter air service — allows them to train pilots to be captains faster and opens them up to hiring pilots forced into early retirement during the pandemic by part 121 airlines — a designation for commercial air service — such as SkyWest.

SkyWest does have plans to transition to a part 135 operation sometime in early 2023. SkyWest's designation change would have automatically prompted a need for open bids for a carrier service if the company had been selected to continue as the airport's service provider.

Cape Girardeau will join the ranks of Plattsburgh and Ogdensburg, New York, as communities a part of SkyWest's recent 2022 termination of nearly 30 markets that have decided to switch service to Contour.

Not all present at the meeting were in favor of the move. Jack Norrenberns, a Southeast Missouri State University student training to be a pilot who spoke before the vote, said Contour's relative small size compared to SkyWest could hinder the community, a statement later challenged by community member Mitchell Kester. Norrenberns also said council members were rushing to make a decision without properly gauging public interest.

"It would have been nice to see some real numbers from real customers on the issue of the bid rather than going just on the speculation of people reaching out," Norrenberns said.

He suggested the city should have conducted a survey of airport users similar to the one conducted by Paducah, Kentucky.

Before the vote, Mayor Stacy Kinder, who attended the Airport Advisory Board meeting Friday in which SkyWest gave a presentation, said she agreed with the board members' assessment at the meeting that Cape Girardeau couldn't trust SkyWest to keep up its agreement.

"I think it's important to note that we are only here discussing this today because SkyWest chose to terminate our service along with 28 other communities," Kinder said.

"My sense was that SkyWest wants Cape Girardeau to make a commitment to them but is still not providing a commitment to us," Kinder added.

Kinder also said she was pleased with Contour's firm offer.