Air service may be months off

With no signs of progress from RegionsAir, the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport could be without commercial air service for three months or more.

RegionsAir says it is still trying to address Federal Aviation Administration problems that led to its grounding two weeks ago. Its officials do not know when or if the problems centering on the carrier's pilot training program will be resolved. Regions has cleaned out its office at the local airport.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said Wednesday that RegionsAir has not submitted a plan to fix the problems and therefore the agency could not give a timeline on when the carrier will be eligible to resume flights. The FAA will have to evaluate RegionsAir's training program and finances before green-lighting it to fly, Brown said.

Incoming carrier Big Sky Airlines says it will not begin flights until sometime this summer.

Big Sky president Fred deLeeuw said his company is working as quickly as possible to start service but was taken by surprise when the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded his company the $3.25 million contract so quickly March 9.

"This is not an overnight deal. We don't sit around with trained pilots and extra aircraft just ready to go," he said Wednesday.

The Department of Transportation deliberated for less than two days before awarding Big Sky the contract under its Essential Air Service program to provide service from Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Tenn., and Owensboro, Ky., to Cincinnati.

Regions' federal contract runs through May 31. DeLeeuw said there is typically a 60-day transfer period after a contract expires when incoming and outgoing carriers share responsibility.

He said training pilots typically takes about three months.

"We're not the ones who made Regions go out of business and stop flying," deLeeuw said.

DeLeeuw said his company has signed purchase contracts for eight 19-seat Beech 1900D aircraft but the planes are being used for service out of Plattsburgh, N.Y., and won't be available for several weeks. The new planes will bring the fleet to 18.

Once Big Sky starts service, though, deLeeuw said the airline will not be plagued by engine problems as Regions was. Collisions with birds grounded half of Regions' fleet at different times in 2006.

'Sort of a mating ritual'

"In two years of flying Beech 1900s we have not had one grounded by a bird ingestion. Birds and airplanes come together all the time. It's sort of a mating ritual, but the difference is our birds end up in a basket outside the engine" and not inside the engine, deLeeuw said.

DeLeeuw said his planes are powered by Pratt & Whitney PT6 engines that are protected from sucking in foreign objects. He also said there will be an extra engine, likely stored at Springfield, Ill., that can be quickly substituted in the event of a problem.

Regions director of sales and marketing Nathan Vallier said his company's pilots are still employed and its aircraft are at company headquarters in Smyrna, Tenn. He hopes to resume service out of Cape Girardeau but could not say when that would happen.

"We're hopeful we'll be able to get something up and running pretty soon. We know it has been a major inconvenience to our passengers," he said.

Vallier said clearing out the Cape Girardeau office was a matter of "securing assets" to make sure no "pilfering" occurs. He said if the carrier is given the green light from the FAA it could continue service until Big Sky begins this summer. That scenario, though, would require "all the dominoes falling the right way," he said, referring to a quick approval by the FAA.

Essential Air Service carriers are paid by the federal government based on the number of flights they complete each month. Regions is not collecting any subsidy money while grounded.

Some airports affected by Regions' grounding are having better luck than Cape Girardeau. Marion, Ill., airport manager Doug Kimmel said he hopes to resume air service to St. Louis in late April or early May through new carrier Great Lakes Airlines.

"We hope they will be able to get in here and basically utilize the equipment and people already in place to get our service in the next few weeks. Great Lakes and American are working very diligently to make this happen sooner rather than later," he said.

Kimmel believes even if RegionsAir gets FAA approval it will be unable to renew its code-share agreement with American Airlines allowing it to use the American logo and ticket agents.

"I don't expect RegionsAir to ever again be affiliated with American. They might do some point-to-point stuff on their own, but it won't be at this airport," he said.

Marion, about an hour drive from Cape Girardeau, offers 16 weekly round-trip flights to Chicago Midway with Mesa Airlines and will offer 26 weekly roundtrip flights to St. Louis.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245