Two air carriers bid for Cape airport service

Two commercial passenger airlines are competing for a federal contract to provide round-trip flights between Cape Girardeau and St. Louis.

Cape Air, the Massachusetts-based airline that offers commercial air service from Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, and Air Choice One, a growing regional airline headquartered in St. Louis, submitted proposals earlier this month for consideration by the airport's advisory board and the United States Department of Transportation.

The airport must renew its federally subsidized commerical air service contract every few years, depending on Department of Transportation requirements. Airport manager Bruce Loy said the advisory board is reviewing each company's proposal and expects to soon meet with airline company representatives for presentations before making contract award recommendations to the city council and Department of Transportation. A new contract should be in place before the end of the summer, Loy said.

Cape Air, which began providing flights to and from St. Louis in late 2009, is offering several options for service.

A renewal of the airline's most recent four-year contract, which would include keeping the same number of weekly, round-trip flights to St. Louis, would start at just over $2 million for the first year, rising to $2.2 million by the start of the fourth year. The airline offers 24 round-trip flights to St. Louis per week, including four each weekday and two each weekend day -- a number set by the Department of Transportation. The Department establishes limits on number of flights for community airports.

If the Department of Transportation chooses to allow 28 flights per week, which Loy said will allow four flights per day, seven days per week, the contract amount per year would start at $2.2 million and reach $2.5 million by the start of the fourth year of the contract. The airline also is offering two-year options with similar starting annual amounts and a 4 percent escalation rate, figured by the airline's alignment of revenue with costs over time.

The airport supports the addition of weekend flights to match weekday offerings, Loy said.

"We've been trying our best to get more flights out of this deal," he said. "It would be really nice, for consistency's sake, and anything we can get extra will help us increase our boardings."

Air Choice One, which bid against Cape Air for previous contracts at the airport, is offering 24 round trips per week in a two-year contract for $2.1 million per year; or a four-year contract for $2.1 million per year for the first two years and just under $2.1 million per year for the remaining two years.

The proposals include bids for air service contracts at airports in the Illinois cities of Quincy and Marion.

Loy said the airport has been "very happy" with the service provided by Cape Air during the past six years. Cape Air uses nine-passenger Cessna 402s for round-trip flights to St. Louis and offers a downtown ticket office in Cape Girardeau and interterminal shuttles to Delta Airlines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines at Lambert-St.Louis International Airport. One-way fares cost $50.

In the Midwest, Cape Air also runs commercial passenger routes to St. Louis from the Missouri sites in Kirksville and Fort Leonard Wood, the Illinois cities of Quincy and Marion and Owensboro, Kentucky.

Cape Air has been running a 99 percent completion rate on flights, Loy said, and in 2014 marked a 37 percent increase in boardings since 2010, its first full year of service in Cape Girardeau.

Year-to-date figures for the airline, compared to last year, "are down just a tad," said Erin Hatzell, Cape Air regional marketing manager.

The airline attributes its slight decrease in ridership to recent declines in fuel prices.

"Also," Hatzell said, "year after year numbers were increasing, and at some point you do hit a little bit of a plateau, so that can be part of it, too."

Hatzell said the airline is "pleased with our service in Cape Girardeau, and we were happy and eager to place a new bid."

Airline representatives met with the airport advisory board in recent weeks and took comments from board members for use in tailoring its proposal for a new contract.

The airline provided 6,511 passengers with outbound flights to St. Louis in 2014, according to figures provided by Loy, which is the highest number seen at the airport in nearly 10 years.

Air Choice One, in its proposal, reports recent growth of its aircraft fleet, number of employees and passengers.

The airline serves seven markets in Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Tennessee with round-trip flights to St. Louis or Chicago, and in some cases, both.

In an emailed statement, Air Choice One CEO Shane Storz said the airline is "excited about the opportunity to provide essential air service to Cape Girardeau and surrounding communities."

"Investing in our commitment to provide the best possible air service, Air Choice One has purchased new 2015 208B EX Cessna Caravans, with plans to continue to grow the fleet with next generation aircraft. We also believe that our connection from St. Louis to our Chicago O'Hare International Airport HUB will open a whole new set of opportunities for travelers from the Cape Girardeau area," the statement read.

The advisory board has until July 8 to submit comments on the proposals to the Department of Transportation.

The airport, until its partnership with Cape Air, experienced several years of trouble with commercial air service providers, including a period where flights were suspended for six months as one airline struggled to hire pilots. Other airlines had equipment problems or less-than-desirable service reliability, Loy said.

Cape Air, said Loy, has "been like a savior" for commercial air service at the airport.

"They finally made things normal around here as far as air service that was on time and reliable," he said. "We really had a horrible reliability problem there for a little bit."

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Outbound boarding numbers at Cape airport

Outbound airline passenger boarding numbers for Cape Girardeau Regional Airport and the carriers:

2005: 6,988 (RegionsAir)

2006: 7,933 (RegionsAir)

2007: 1,642 (Big Sky)

2008: 463 (Great Lakes)

2009: 936 (Great Lakes-580/Cape Air-456)

2010: 4,766 (Cape Air)

2011: 5,936 (Cape Air)

2012: 6,226 (Cape Air)

2013: 6,429 (Cape Air)

2014: 6,511 (Cape Air)

Source: Cape Girardeau Regional Airport