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 and suggests his rea<:iers write to you if they agree with him. I 

agree absolutely with Mr. Schonbek. From what I've heard, the Clinton County legislature was less 

than objective in making its decision in favor of Colgan Air. Many people suspect, with good 

evidence, that the head of the local chamber of commerce 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 that has 

started to be known about the airline since that disaster should be enough to keep potential 

customers away. It's interestin~ too, that the supporters of Colgan Air seem to have succeeded in 

keepingthat air crash information out of the press before the 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 big mistake 

By ANDREW SCHONBEK 

In my opinion 

February 13,2010 06:14 am 

- Last week, our legislature recommended that Colgan Air be approved as the area's Essential Air 

Service (BAS) provider. 

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

1 
wastes taxp~yer dollars. It does not recognize the success of Cape 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 on which the legislature's faulty 

decision was based) also counts, but not at the expense of other 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 plans 21 weekly flights, (28 eluring the summer). Outside of a trial "stimulus period" in 

. which there would be 17 weekly flights, Colgan proposes 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 the best that Colgan could 

do was commit to a "target range" of $75 to $125, with no guarantee that this will not be exceeded in 

the future. In practice, Colgan has a track record of aggressively increasing prices in other markets in 

which if has been awarded EAS contracts. 

As if that weren't enough, to deliver this lower level of service, 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 costbecause 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 toquickly 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 of traffic, Colgan wi11likely 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 cost more, 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 of larger aircraft. Apparently, it was swayed in 

this decision by a survey prepared by the Chamber 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 . 

2 
·Canadi~n, I cannot imagine that this is the case. Cer~ainly, 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 Buffalo suburb, killing 50. 

An important PBS Frontline documentary, which aited on Feb. 9, makes the point that economic 

issues associated with the Colgan business model created incentives to cut comers and take risks that 

tiltimatelymay have contributed to this tragedy. 

Knowing all this, it's hard to understand why our elected officials have chosen to turn their backs on 

Cape Air. Their ill-advised recommendation is likely to reduce ac~ivity at the airport and toimpede 

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.govtoday, before they make their final decision. 

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

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

also been amember of the Clinton County Area Development Corp. Board for a number ofyears.· 

Copyright © 1999-2010 cnhi, inc. 

3 
-

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. 

1