Two carriers submit bids to service Cape fliers

A Missouri company hoping to grow from a charter service into a commuter airline and a Wyoming company looking for a chance to expand its offerings will compete for Cape Girardeau's passengers.

Both Air Choice One, which operates out of the Farmington, Mo., regional airport and Great Lakes Airlines, with headquarters in Cheyenne, Wyo., are proposing $75 one-way fares from Cape Girardeau to St. Louis. Air Choice One only offered to fly to St. Louis, while Great Lakes is offering the U.S. Department of Transportation the options of directing it to fly to St. Louis, Kansas City or Cincinnati.

The two companies were the only air carriers to submit bids for the Cape Girardeau contract abandoned by Big Sky Air Lines when it ceased service on Jan. 7 after six weeks of service. The two carriers are also asking for the rights to provide service to Owensboro, Ky., and Jackson, Tenn., the two cities that had been linked to Cape Girar-deau in the Big Sky contract.

The transportation department will choose a carrier after the cities have made recommendations, said Bill Mosley, a spokesman for the department. "We aim to make a decision as soon as possible, certainly no later than next week if at all possible," he said. "If the communities get the recommendations in early, it could be sooner."

Cape Girardeau Regional Airport manager Bruce Loy said the department wants recommendations by Friday. The Cape Girardeau Airport Advisory Board will meet at 5 p.m. today to discuss the bids.

"They are fast-tracking it," Loy said. "I don't blame them. I'm glad they are."

Last year, when the city was considering which airline to recommend, the final decision was made by the Cape Girardeau City Council. With no council meeting scheduled this week, Loy said he was unsure how the selection would be made. City manager Doug Leslie will make that call, Loy said.

Both companies are offering 19 round-trip flights per week. Great Lakes would fly 19-seat twin-engine turboprop aircraft, while Air Choice One would fly nine-seat single-engine airplanes.

Loy said he hasn't decided which bid to recommend.

Both carriers are vying for subsidies provided under the Essential Air Service program, a program that was begun after the deregulation of air fares in the late 1970s to underwrite service to smaller cities. Payments under the program are based on the number of completed flights.

Great Lakes is asking for a $4.5 million subsidy to provide service to the three airports. In addition, Loy said Great Lakes' bid indicates it is unwilling to provide service to the other two cities if it is denied the Cape Girardeau contract.

Of the total, $1.5 million would be needed to make up for projected losses for the Cape Girardeau route, according to the bid documents.

That works out to about $1,515 per flight, or $101 per passenger if Great Lakes meets its projections of 14,750 passengers carried in either direction.

Air Choice One is seeking a total of $2.7 million in subsidies, of which $856,000 would underwrite the Cape Girardeau service. That figure works out to $866 per flight, or $55.50 per passenger if it meets its projections of 15,426 passengers carried in either direction.

Air Choice One has been seeking ways for several years to expand from a charter and "air taxi" service to become what it calls a "micro-carrier" in its bid. In 2005, Air Choice One received a grant of $936,404 to provide daily scheduled flights from Poplar Bluff, Mo., to St. Louis via Farmington, but the service never began because the cities involved "got cold feet and declined to use the grant," said Shane Storz, vice-president of the carrier's parent company, Multi-Aero Inc.

The air taxi service was set up as a way to sell extra seats to reduce the cost to each customer for charter flights. The company was halted from providing service between Belleville, Ill., and Midway Airport in Chicago by the FAA, which said it could not legally offer scheduled service.

In 2005, Air Choice One received approval to operate scheduled service and for several months tried to operate between St. Louis and Lake of the Ozarks, but a lack of revenue forced them to close the route, Storz said.

The carrier's license was put in dormant status until Jan. 8, when it reached an agreement to provide service from Mountain Home, Ark., to St. Louis.

Air Choice One's license limits it to using nine-seat aircraft, Storz said.

"Our business model is basically reaching out to the small communities," he said.

Neither airline has a code share agreement with a major airline, meaning they will not bundle their flights with a major carrier. But Air Choice One would deposit passengers at the St. Louis terminal used by American Airlines and Southwest Airlines and passengers screened for security at Cape Girardeau would not have to submit to another screening, Storz said.

"We want to provide a hometown airline service that used to be there when Ozark and Semo airways flew way back in the beginning," Storz said.

Calls to Great Lakes Airlines seeking comment were not returned.

rkeller@semissourian.com

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