QUINCY — Three finalists made what are likely to be their final pitches to a subcommittee reviewing proposals to provide Essential Air Service at Quincy Regional Airport during a series of meetings on Wednesday.
In November, the city asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to terminate the current contract with Southern Airways Express due to excessive cancellations and delays, leading to lower numbers of users flying out of Quincy.
The three finalists include Cape Air, which intends to primarily fly newer Tecnam P2012 aircraft configured with nine seats, similar to the current planes used by Southern. Cape Air was Quincy’s EAS provider until 2022 when the company requested to be removed due to their own struggles meeting schedules while battling post-pandemic pilot shortages.
“We fired ourselves,” said Aaron Blinka, Cape Air’s vice president of Planning. “We couldn’t meet expectations then. We wouldn’t have come back if we didn’t think we could meet those demands.”
The two other finalists, Air Wisconsin and Contour Airlines, both proposed returning jet service to Quincy. Both airlines use the same primary aircraft options, the Bombardier CRJ200 jet. The biggest difference in the airlines’ offerings are the number of passengers.
Contour Airlines has the jets configured with seats for 30 passengers, under the threshold that would require additional firefighting and safety equipment. Air Wisconsin flies a version of the plane with 50 seats, which would require the extra safety measures.
When SkyWest was the service provider, a term that ended in 2019, the jets did require the extra staff, adding approximately $115,000 in annual budget needs for the Quincy Fire Department.
Even with the potential for the added expense, Mayor Mike Troup has expressed a preference for returning jet service to Quincy. One aspect that the committee said isn’t always considered by citizens looking at the options is having the capacity as a selling point when pitching Quincy to corporations considering building facilities in or near Quincy.
Troup noted if Air Wisconsin were to be awarded the contract, the additional costs could be offset by increasing landing fees charged to aircraft coming into the airport.
Matt Chaifetz, CEO of Contour Airlines, said his company’s proposals would, in his opinion, open up Quincy to a wider array of travel options. Contour’s proposal, like all three finalists, includes flights to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, but unlike the other two candidates, Contour is recommending flights to Nashville instead of St. Louis.
“St. Louis makes no sense for this market,” Chaifetz said, citing the relatively short driving distance as compared to Chicago or Nashville.
Chaifetz noted that St. Louis is primarily a hub for Southwest Airlines, a company that does not extend contracts with other carriers, meaning that travelers have to buy separate flights to St. Louis and then from there to a final destination. Baggage also has to be claimed and re-checked in the Gateway city to move on to additional flights.
One other note Chaifetz made was that if customers did prefer to continue using Southwest, Nashville still offered more connections on that airline than there are available through St. Louis.
One advantage that both Contour and Air Wisconsin claimed over Cape Air was the ability to fly the jet aircraft into harsher weather conditions than the smaller propeller-driven aircraft. With Chicago as a main focus for all three proposals, winter months could lead to higher weather-related cancellations for the smaller aircraft.
Blinka noted with more stringent winter flight rules, Cape Air would likely put a cap of seven tickets on each of their flights as opposed to the planes’ nine-passenger capacity.
One incentive included in the Air Wisconsin proposal was the potential for the company to lease hangar space for basing an aircraft in Quincy. While Contour and Cape Air also discussed keeping an aircraft in Quincy, those presentations didn’t discuss additional fees that might come from the arrangement.
With the departure of Cape Air and the perceived failures of Southern, a common theme in questions to all three presenters revolved around earning back the trust of a public that has lost faith is airlines’ commitment to meeting Quincy’s needs.
Air Wisconsin CEO Rob Binns said though the company’s proposal is for an initial two-year contract, he would hope that would be the start of a relationship to last decades.
“It’s a risk we’re taking, but we think the market is here,” Binns said. “There just hasn’t been the product and reliability for people to use the airport. One of the advantages (for Air Wisconsin) is that we own our assets, we have no debt, and we are sufficiently capitalized, and that gives up the opportunity to weather the time it takes to rebuild that trust in the community.”
Binns noted that with Air Wisconsin’s fleet of 63 CRJ200 jets, on most days there are seven to nine of them parked in reserve to be used if an aircraft in service develops a problem, leading to a reduction in delayed or cancelled flights due to mechanical issues.
Chaifetz, in his presentation, shared a similar note, with Contour Airlines having an agreement with SkyWest — a 25% stakeholder in the company — to provide additional aircraft when needed.
One difference in the Contour proposal from the others is that the company primarily operates under what’s called an Alternative EAS contract, as opposed to a traditional contract. As Chaifetz explained, traditional EAS agreements are made between an airline and the USDOT. Any changes to be made in scheduling, such as shifting routes from Chicago to St. Louis or Nashville due to passenger demands, have to be filed through and approved by the federal agency.
The alternative contract, however, has the USDOT provide the funds to the city while the contract is between the city government and the airline directly. This allows schedules and other changes to be made quicker and easier since it would not be subject to the same federal bureaucracy.
All three proposals had pros and cons to be weighed by the subcommittee members. At a meeting of the full Aeronautics Committee that followed the presentations Wednesday, committee members determined that faster would be better on making the EAS chance. With that in mind, as long as there was notification to the full committee and a chance for additional questions if needed, the subcommittee could submit a recommendation directly to the Quincy City Council rather than waiting on the next monthly meeting of the full committee.
At that meeting, committee members heard that unofficial totals for passenger enplanements in 2024 was 4,480 passengers, a decrease of 230 from 2023. In order to qualify for a $1 million entitlement for airport funding from the federal government, the airport has to reach 10,000 enplanements in a year. The last year Quincy reached that level was 2019.
No date was set for an additional meeting for the subcommittee, but Troup said he hopes the discussion among members can happen quickly.