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| Founded | 1989 | |||
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| AOC # | HYIA145B | |||
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| Focus cities | ||||
| Frequent-flyer program | Millage Plus | |||
| Fleet size | 69 | |||
| Destinations | 36 | |||
| Company slogan | "We're your wings." | |||
| Headquarters | Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States | |||
| Key people | Daniel A. Wolf (CEO) | |||
| Website | capeair.com nantucketairlines.com |
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Hyannis Air Service, Inc., operating as Cape Air, is an airline headquartered at Barnstable Municipal Airport in Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States.[1] It operates scheduled passenger services in the Northeast, Florida, the Caribbean, Mid-Atlantic States, Midwest, and Micronesia. Flights in Micronesia are operated as United Express flights through a code share partnership with United Airlines. Flights between Hyannis and Nantucket, Massachusetts, are operated under the Nantucket Airlines brand, also operated by Hyannis Air Service, Inc.[2]
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The airline was co-founded in 1988 by company pilots Craig Stewart and Dan Wolf, and investor Grant Wilson. Initially, Cape Air flew between Provincetown and Boston in Massachusetts, but throughout the early 1990s new routes were added to destinations across southeastern New England. Services in Florida and the Caribbean were added in the late 1990s, and service in Micronesia commenced in 2004. In 1994, Cape Air and Nantucket Airlines merged and now offer hourly flights between Nantucket and Hyannis.
In late 2007, the airline began a new round of expansion in the Northeast and Midwest. On November 1, 2007, the airline began service between Boston and Rutland, Vermont, with three daily round trips. The route is subsidized by the U.S. government under the Essential Air Service (EAS) program.
With the help of a government grant, Cape Air expanded into Indiana on November 13, 2007, offering flights from Indianapolis to Evansville and South Bend. The airline did not get the passengers numbers needed to be financially successful once subsidies would come to an end. The last Cape Air flight in Indiana was on August 31, 2008.
The airline expanded into upstate New York in early 2008, following the sudden demise of Delta Connection carrier Big Sky Airlines. Cape Air began flying three daily round-trips on Essential Air Service routes from Boston to the Adirondack cities of Plattsburgh and Saranac Lake on February 12, 2008.
The airline continued its expansion into New York when they started to fly the EAS routes out of Albany to Watertown, Ogdensburg, and Massena. Cape Air commenced service from Rockland, Maine, and Lebanon, New Hampshire, to Boston on November 1, 2008. Cape Air also flies to/from Westchester County Airport to/from Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, initially for seasonal summer flights, which has since become year round. The company recently purchased four additional Cessna 402's to assist with the recent growth.
Cape Air was also looking to offer service on the west coast. Cape Air submitted bids to offer service between Newport and Portland in the state of Oregon. The airline was hoping to be selected by the Newport city council to receive a financial grant to jump-start the service.[3] Ultimately they lost out to SeaPort Airlines, which was able to get the service going sooner than the 2010 date that Cape Air had submitted.[4]
The airline has also broken into the mid-Atlantic region. Cape Air provides regularly scheduled flights from both the Hagerstown Regional Airport and the Lancaster Airport to the Baltimore-Washington International Airport.[5]
Cape Air operates EAS Service from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport to Cape Girardeau, MO, Kirksville, MO, Ft. Leonard Wood, MO, Marion, IL, Quincy, IL, and Owensboro, KY.
Cape Air has held discussions with airport officials to offer service between Pittsburgh International Airport and Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, Pennsylvania and Erie International Airport in Erie, Pennsylvania.[6]
Cape Air is the largest independent regional airline in the United States and carried more than 680,000 passengers in 2009, with new routes driving steady increases over time. Cape Air offers up to 550 daily flights system wide.
Nantucket Airlines, Cape Air's sister airline, operates Cape Air service under the Nantucket Airlines name. Flights depart hourly, and operate between Nantucket (Nantucket Memorial Airport) and Hyannis (Barnstable Municipal Airport).
All Cape Air flights in Micronesia are operated as United Express in a codeshare agreement with United Airlines. Caribbean flights also have a codeshare with United, but are not operated as United Express. It was formerly operated as Continental Connection for Continental Airlines when United received a single operating certificate from the FAA on November 30, 2011 and was renamed "United Express".
Since February 2007, Cape Air and JetBlue Airways have had a codeshare agreement. The agreement allows Cape Air to carry JetBlue Airways passengers from Boston's Logan Airport to Cape Air's destinations throughout Cape Cod and the surrounding islands. The agreement allows customers on both airlines to purchase seats on both airlines under one reservation. Customers also get their baggage transferred and Cape Air and JetBlue Airways are located in the same terminal in Boston which allows for an easy connection.[7] The DOT cited JetBlue $600K (USD) for violating code-share disclosure rules and ADA assessibility rules.[8] JetBlue now also operates daily, seasonal, flights to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, using their Embraer 190 aircraft.
The agreement which started in April 2010, allows passengers from Quincy and Marion, Il; Cape Girardeau, Kirksville, and Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri to connect in St. Louis, Mo.[9]
As of November 2010, Cape Air's fleet consists of the following aircraft:[10]
| Type | Fleet | Orders | Passengers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATR 42-320 | 2 | 0 | 46 | Operated in Micronesia. |
| Cessna 402 | 69 | 0 | 9 |
In November 2010, Cape Air announced that it was considering new aircraft types to replace the Cessna 402. On April 18, 2011, Tecnam, an Italian company announced it will be producing the Tecnam P2012 Traveller. The aircraft will be ready for delivery in 2013.[11]
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