Cape Air (9K, Hyannis) is to take over services from Quincy Regional, IL to Chicago O'Hare from January 8, under the Essential Air Service programme, a route that was being operated by SkyWest Airlines (OO, Salt Lake City) on behalf of United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare).
In addition, from November 10, Cape Air's new flights will also be designated with the AA code for American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth), an airline spokesperson confirmed to ch-aviation.
As a result of this route cessation by United, the Star Alliance carrier will now only serve four airports in the State of Illinois, namely O'Hare, Moline, Peoria International, and Springfield, IL.
The multiple daily flights presently flown by Skywest will terminate on January 7 and are currently Quincy's only scheduled services. However, in addition to its planned Chicago operation, Cape Air will also begin an 18x weekly service using its 11-seat Tecnam P2012 fleet from Quincy to St. Louis Lambert International also on January 8, again with the AA code.
While Boston is the top airport for the regional carrier in terms of weekly seats when consulting the ch-aviation capacities module, St. Louis is presently Cape Air's sixth-largest operation and O'Hare is ranked as 18th from the 35 airports it serves.
