Cape Air prepares for Albany
Service at "hublet" to begin on Sept. 16 as passenger line expands to region

By Eric Anderson
Albany Times Union, N.Y.
Aug. 21--HYANNIS, Mass. -- It's a busy time in the maintenance hangar here at Barnstable Municipal Airport, as Cape Air prepares for its Albany debut.
Mechanics are being trained and newly acquired aircraft are being overhauled as the regional carrier gets ready to begin service from Albany to Massena, Watertown and Ogdensburg. Flights begin Sept. 16, with three daily trips from Albany International Airport to each city, for nine in all.
Right after Labor Day, Cape Air will open a maintenance base at the airport in Colonie, said Daniel Wolf. Wolf is Cape Air's president and, on Saturdays during August, a pilot on the Boston-Provincetown route.
Albany will be a "hublet" for Cape Air, which has its main hub at Boston's Logan International Airport. It also flies regional routes along Florida's Gulf Coast, in the Caribbean and in Micronesia.
For passengers, Cape Air will probably offer the smallest planes they've seen in a long time. Each aircraft carries a maximum of nine passengers. There are no flight attendants, in-flight movies, or overhead luggage bins.
But then, flights are typically an hour or less, quick hops between cities on routes that would take hours longer on the ground.
The Cessna 402s -- twin-engine, propeller-driven airplanes -- aren't even manufactured anymore. The last one rolled off the assembly line in 1985. So maintenance has to be thorough.
In the hangar in Hyannis, at least one aircraft has been stripped to its shell. It will get new seats, carpeting and upholstery, as well as new flight-control systems and other improvements. It's one of four aircraft Cape Air has acquired for its Albany expansion.
The carrier is no stranger to New York state. It began flying routes from Boston to Saranac Lake and Plattsburgh in February, after Big Sky Airlines ended service to those cities on Jan. 3.
"We're very pleased" with Cape Air's service, said Keith Wells, chairman of the airport marketing committee for the Adirondack Regional Airport at Lake Clear, which serves Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. "Their on-time performance is phenomenal. They're not like Big Sky and that debacle" -- a reference to flights that frequently were canceled or delayed.
Wells said ridership also has jumped, and is running at more than 1,000 passengers a month, compared to 200 to 300 monthly when Big Sky, and before it Commutair, were serving the route.
Officials in Saranac Lake also are seeking to convince Cape Air to fly to Albany.
"We're going to have a survey to see how well ridership would do if they fly to Albany as well," Wells said.
In Albany, officials would like to see Cape Air fly to Boston or Cape Cod. Airline officials say they are looking at the possibility of seasonal service between Albany and the cape.
The planes will move back and forth across Massachusetts as they head to Albany for periodic heavy maintenance. So far, Cape Air has hired and is training four mechanics for its Albany base, and will likely double the number to eight, said James Goddard, vice president of maintenance who is overseeing the establishment of the Albany base.
He's also shopping for more Cessna 402s. The four purchased by Cape Air boosted its fleet to 53 of the nine-seaters, and it is looking for another four, Wolf said. It also operates two larger ATR-42 turbopop aircraft on its flights between Guam, Rota and Saipan in the Pacific Ocean.
The fares Cape Air is charging on its routes from Albany to the North Country are as low as $49 one way. The routes are federally subsidized under the Essential Air Service program, and Wolf said he uses the money to reduce fares. Cape Air will get nearly $3.9 million annually in federal funding.
"We're using the subsidy to get really affordable rates," he said. "Our airfares are as cheap as driving, if not cheaper."
The fares also are about half what it costs to fly from Rutland or Saranac Lake to Boston on Cape Air, or from Boston to Provincetown.
Cape Air maintains a Web site, www.flycapeair.com, cq tickets may be booked.
For Wells, the Saranac Lake official, the challenge this winter will be to get Bostonians to ski in the Adirondacks.
"We're starting to try to decide how to penetrate that market," he said. Anderson can be reached at 454-5323 or by e-mail at eanderson@timesunion.com.
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