The Aeronautics Committee of the city of Quincy Regional, Illinois, has voted 4-2 to endorse Boutique Air (4B, San Francisco) for an Essential Air Services contract, reports The Herald Whig. The US Department of Transportation issued a request for proposals in May 2017, and applications have so far been tendered by Air Choice One, Southern Airways Express, SkyWest Airlines, and Cape Air.
Incumbent provider Cape Air was awarded the EAS in October 2015, operating Cape Girardeau and Quincy to St. Louis Lambert International using 9-seater Cessna (twin piston) 402 aircraft for a two-year term, for a total subsidy of USD4.8 million. The town Aeronautics Committee is looking to upgrade from Cape's aircraft which are unpressurised and relatively slow.
Boutique Air's bid proposes using PC-12 equipment on 36x weekly flights to St Louis or Chicago O'Hare at a total cost of USD2.7 million per year.
Supporting Cape Air, however, is American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) which has submitted a letter of support for Cape Air's bid.
"If Cape Air is reselected to continue serving Cape Girardeau and Quincy, American Airlines would be delighted to continue our existing codeshare agreement with Cape Air, providing to the Cape Girardeau and Quincy communities seamless booking and travel on American Airlines' worldwide network," their letter says.
Boutique Air currently serves seventeen EAS communities in the US and a total of thirty destinations. Cape Air serves nineteen EAS communities and thirty-nine destinations overall.
