Devany, Dennis (OST) From: ejburde [ejburde@together.net1

.....**·,';~.t1t:** Tuesday, February 23,20109:33 AM :.'l/ «, To: .1·\ Devany, Dennis (OST); Swanson, Brian (OST) Subject: Plattsburgh, NY and Cape Air , - 1

. Sirs:

I'm enclosing an article that appeared in our local newspaper several days ago. Mr. Schonbek, the writer, includes your e-mail addresses andsuggestshis rea<:iers write to you ifthey agree withhim. I agree absolutely with Mr. Schonbek. From what I've heard, the Clinton County legislature was less than objective in making its decision infavor ofColganAir. Many people suspect, with good evidence, that the head ofthe local chamber ofcommerce exercised ugly influence in the legislature's decision. Be that as it may, Colgan Air will not attract customers like me once it becomes more widely known how incompetent and disreputable Colgan Air is. The Buffalo, New York, air crash and all thathas started to beknown about the airline since that disaster should be enough to keeppotential customers away. It's**interestin~** too, that the supporters of Colgan Air seem to have succeeded in keepingthat air crash information out ofthe press beforethe county legislature voted its approval. I fully support Cape Air. (Mr.) E. 

### J. Burde Plattsburgh, N,y' 

## Plattsburgh (NY) Press-Republican Cape Air loss a bigmistake By ANDREW SCHONBEK Inmy opinion February 13,2010 06:14 am

- Last week,ourlegislature recommended that Colgan Air be approved as the area's Essential Air Service (BAS) provider. This controversial decision is not in the interest ofthe community's economic development and 1wastes**taxp~yer** dollars. Itdoes notrecognize the success ofCape Air, which has tripled**tr~ffic** to . Boston; Cape Air's exceHent 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 onwhich the legislature's faulty decision wasbased) also counts, but not at the expenseofother key factors. That a shift to Colgan Air would have an immediate negative effect on North Country residents' quality of air travel is painfully clear.

. Cape Air plans21weekly flights, (28 eluring thesummer). Outside of a trial"stimulus period" in

.which therewouldbe 17weekly flights, Colganproposes only 12. This severely limits connection options at Logan Airport, and is sure ;to reduce traffic. Additionally, Cape Air has guaranteed a one-way ticket price of $65, while thebest that Colgan could do was commit to a "target range" of $75 to $125, with no guarantee that this will notbe exceeded in the future. Inpractice, Colganhas a track record ofaggressively increasing prices inother markets in which ifhasbeen awarded EAS contracts. As ifthat weren't enough, to deliver this lower level of service, Colganis asking U.s. taxpayers for a subsidy that is 59 percent higher than Cape Air's. As the governmentstruggles with the effects of unprecedented deficits, one would think that this factor, alone, wouldbe decisive. Cape Air achieves superior service at a lower costbecause ofitsuniquebusiness 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-timeperformance are enhancedbytheability toquickly bring a replacement aircraft onto a particular route todeal with mechanical problems or compensate for upstream delays. Finally, the cost effectiveness ofthis approach results inlower ticket prices, also boosting traffic. None of these advantages are associated with the conventional model using larger aircraft that is espousedby Colgan. At any given level of traffic, Colganwi11likely have fewer flights, and fewer connection options. Service is also likely to suffer, as the airline will have an incentive to cancel lightload flights. They will not have the flexibility to work around mechanical or traffic delays. And obviously, larger aircraft costmore, translating into higher ticket prices. All this was disregarded by the legislature, which feels that the flying publiciWill trade Cape Air's compelling cost and service benefits for the option oflarger aircraft. Apparently, itwas swayed in this decision by a survey prepared by the Chamber ofCommerce, whichindicated that Montreal residents would be more likely to make use of the airport if itwere serviced by larger aircraft. As a . 2**·Canadi~n,** I cannot imaginethat this is the case.**Cer~ainly,** if the survey question had explicitly

.. recognized the cost and service trade:-offs, the response would havebeenvery different.

Even if this were not so, the purpose ofthe EAS program is not for U.S. taxpayers to subsidize travel by foreign nationals. Therefore, any argument on the theory oftraffic increases based onnon-resident ridership shouldbe disqualified
.

.Several ofthe legislators hid behind the fig leaf ofpublic safety in suggesting that the lack of a copilot

on Cape Air flights is inherently unsafe. In making this baseless argument, they chose toignore Cape Air's impeccable safety record, as well as the controversy surrounding last year's tragic Colgan flight 3407 accident, in which the plane, enroute from Newark, crashed into a Buffalo suburb, killing 50. An important PBS Frontline documentary,which aited onFeb. 9, makes the point that economic issues associated withthe Colganbusinessmodel created incentives to cut comers and take risks that tiltimatelymay have contributed to this tragedy. Knowing all this, it's hardto understand why our elected officials have chosen to turn theirbacks on Cape Air. Their ill-advised recommendation is likely toreduce**ac~ivity** at the airport andtoimpede 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 yourvoices heard in this matter. Send e-mails to dennis.devany@dot.gov and brian.swanson@dot.govtoday, before they make their final decision. 

### As its CEO, Andrew Schonbek grew Schonbek Worldwide Lighting into one ofthe region IS 

### largest manufacturing employers, before selling it to the renowned internationalfashion company, Swarovski. He has also been amemberofthe Clinton CountyArea Development Corp. Board for anumber of years.· Copyright 

### © 1999-2010 cnhi, inc.

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# - Swanson, Brian (OSn From: Sally Yanulavich [s_yanulavich@hotmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 24,201011:04 AM To: Swanson, Brian (OST) Subject: Cape Air Dear Brian I feel that a big mistake has been made by Clinton County Legislatures by voting for Colgan Air over Cape Air. Please overturn this decision so a tragic accident doesn't happen to people from the North Country. Thank you, Sally Yanulavich Your E-mail and More On-the-Go. Get Windows Live Hotmail Free. Sign up now.

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