Devan 

From: Kirk Fraser' [fraserkm @ plattsburgh.edu] 

"",o,Sent: • Saturday, February 13, 2010 10:44 AM 

To:'" ',' D~any; Qji)nnis (OST) 

Subject: Cape Air - Plattsburgh EAS provider 

DEtar Mr:·Oeva~¥, 

I urge you to reject the recommendation by the Clinton County legislature to select Colgan as the new provider for air 

service at the Plattsburgh International Airport. Cape Air has met and will continue to meet the needs required by the 

area for air service. At this time, there is no need for larger, more expensive planes, which in turn will reduce the number 

of flights in and out of Plattsburgh and raise prices dramatlc.{,!Uy" In/at;j9itiQli; Colgan has not ad~quately addressed 

concerns highlighted by their crash last year, which hasim'plicated their emir~ corporate strategy and culture. ' 

The Clinton County legislature showed its inexperience and ineffectiveness in their vote for Colgan. Arguably, the two 

most knowledgeable of the situation, Keith Defayette, current chairman of the Airport and Finance Committees and Robert 

Heins, the past chairman of that same committee, both voted in favor of retaining Cape Air. It has be,en well documented 

that two other legislators deferred their vote, fearing theirs would be the decisive vote and open themselves up for 

criticism., This is hardly an example of making an informed and educational decision which will impact the future of our 

area for years. 

I am asking you to correct the grievous error made by our legislature and select Cape Air to continue the area's 

Essential Air Service. Thank you. 

What follows is an article entitled "Cape Air loss a big mistake" written by Andrew Schonbek and published in the 

February 13th edition of the Plattsburgh Press Republican. Mr. Schonbek has eloquently stated the case for retaining 

Cape Air in Plattsburgh. 

Kirk M. Fraser 

Equipment Manager 

Plattsburgh State 

FieldHouse 

101 Broad Street 

Plattsburgh, NY 12901 

phone 518-564-3061 

fax 518-564-3069 

kirk.fraser@plattsburgh.edu 

Published February 12, 2010 10:57 pm - Cape Air's excellent service, reliability and cost effectiveness position 

it strongly to continue to grow. 

Cape Air loss a big mistake 

By ANDREW SCHONBEK 

In my opinion 

Last week, our legislature recommended that Colgan Air be approved as the area's Essential Air Service (EAS) 

provider. 

This controversial decision is not in the interest of the community's economic development and wastes taxpayer 

dollars. It does not -recognize the success of Cape Air, which has tripled traffic to Boston. Cape Air's excellent ' 

service, reliability and cost effectiveness position it strongly to continue to grow. ' 

Apart from safety, the most important air-service requirements for an area such as this one are frequency, 

connectivity, reliability and price. Aircraft size (the factor on which the legislature's faulty decision was based) 

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also counts, but not at the expense of other key factors. 

That a shift toColgan Air would have an immediate negative effect on North Country residents' quality of air 

travelis painfully clear. 

Cape Air plans 21 weekly flights, (28 during the summer). Outside of a trial "stimulus period" in which there 

would be 17 weekly flight~, Colgan proposes only 12. This severely limits connection options at Logan Airport, 

and is sure to reduce traffic . 

. ,A{lditiopaIly, CapeAir has guaranteed a one-way ticket price of $65, while the best that Colgan could do was. 

commit to a "target range" of $75 to $125, with noguatantee that this will not be exceeded in the future. In . 

. ' practice, Colgarrhasa track record'ofaggressiv~IY:1ncreasing prices in other markets in which it has been 

awarde~AS contracts. ' 

.~~ ." •• '_.,:1; ~ , 

-As, if that ~eren't enough, to deliver this lower levelof,sej-yice; Colgan is asking U.S. taxpayers for a subsidy 

that is 59 percent higher than Cape Air's; As the government struggles with the effects of unprecedented. 

deficits, one would think that this factor, alone, would be decisive .. 

Cape Air achieves superior service at a lower cost because of its unique business model, built around a large 

and nimble fleet of small aircraft enabling high load factors. As traffic increases, Cape Air can schedule more 

frequent flights, thereby improving connectivity. In certain situations they have assigned mUltiple aircraft to a 

single flight to accommodate temporary load surges; 

Reliability and on-time performance are enhanced by the ability to quickly bring a replacement aircraft onto a 

particular route to deal with mechanical problems or compensate for upstream delays. Finally, the cost 

effectiveness of this approach results in lower ticket prices, also boosting traffic. 

None of these advantages are associated with the conventional model using larger aircraft that is espoused by 

Colgan. At any given level oftraffic, Colgan will likely have fewer flights, and fewer connection options. 

Service is also likely to suffer, as the airline will have an incentive to cancel light-load flights. They will not 

have the flexibility to work around mechanical or traffic delays. And obviously, larger aircraft cost more, 

translating into higher ticket prices. 

All this was disregarded by the legislature, which feels that the flying public will trade Cape Air's compelling 

cost and service benefits for the option of larger aircraft. Apparently, it was swayed in this decision by a survey 

prepared by theChamber of Commerce, which indicated that Montreal, residents would be more likely to make 

use of the airport if it were serviced by larger aircraft. As a Canadian, I cannot imagine that this is the case. 

Certainly, if the survey question had explicitly recognized the cost and service trade-offs, the response would 

have been very different. 

Even if this were not so, the purpose of the EAS program is not for U.S. taxpayers to subsidize travel by foreign 

nationals. Therefore, any argument on the theory of traffic increases based on non-resident ridership should be 

disqualified. 

Several of the legislators hid behind the fig leaf of public safety in suggesting that the lack of a copilot on Cape 

Air flights is inherently unsafe. In making this baseless argument, they chose to ignore Cape Air's impeccable 

safety record, as well as the controversy surrounding last year's tragic Colgan flight 3407 accident, in which the 

plane, en route from Newark, crashed into a Buffal.o suburb, killin~ ~O. An impo~ant P~S Frontline . 

documentary, which aired on Feb. 9, makes the pOIut that economIC Issues assoclate~ WIth the C.olgan busmess 

model created incentives to cut comers and take risks that ultimately may have contnbuted to thIS tragedy. 

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Knowing all this, it's hard to understand why our elected officials have chosen to tum their backs on Cape Air . 

. Their ill-advised recommendation is likely to reduce activity at the airport and to impede the area's economic 

development. But it's not too late to stop this from happening. The DOT is not bound to accept the legislature's 

recommendation - it can come to a different conclusion, and it should. I urge all North Country residents to 

make your voices heard in this matter. Send e-mails to dennis.devany@dot.gov and brian.swanson@dot.gov 

.. ~ today; befote they make theiriinal deCision.' ._ ..: 

As its CEO, Andrew Schonbek grew Schonbek Worldwide Lighting into one of the region's largest 

manufacturing employers, before selling it to the renowned international fashion company, Swarovski. 

He has alsocbeen a member of the ClintonCQunty Area Development Corp. Board for a number ofyears. 

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