Contour Airlines asks DOT to approve flights from Cape Girardeau to Chicago

By Christopher Borro ~ Southeast Missourian

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Contour Airlines will soon start flights from Cape Girardeau Regional Airport to Chicago O'Hare International Airport pending Department of Transportation approval. These flights would replace the ones Contour currently flies from Cape Girardeau to Nashville.

Southeast Missourian file

The chief executive officer of Contour Airlines has filed a request with the U.S. Department of Transportation to replace Cape Girardeau Regional Airport’s service to Nashville.

Contour CEO Matthew Chaifetz requested that the Smyrna, Tennessee, company, doing business as Corporate Flight Management Inc., operate Essential Air Service (EAS) flights not to the Tennessee capital’s Nashville International Airport, a medium hub airport, but instead to the larger hub airport of Chicago O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.

“The community of Cape Girardeau supports this proposed amended service pattern,” Chaifetz said in a Monday, June 17, letter to DOT associate director of EAS Kevin Schlemmer and DOT aviation industry analyst Michael Martin. “Contour is not proposing any modifications to the contractual payment terms nor to substitute materially different aircraft.”

If approved by the DOT, the service change would take effect Oct. 1, 2024. Contour would provide 12 round-trip flights per week from Cape Girardeau Regional Airport to Chicago.

In his request, Chaifetz said Contour currently has no plans to revert the service back to Nashville International Airport, but he asked for the flexibility to do so in the future, if the need arises.

This would not be the first-time passengers can fly from Cape Girardeau to Chicago. Previous service there ended after St. George, Utah-based SkyWest Airlines announced in March 2022 that they would cease EAS service to Cape Girardeau Regional Airport and 28 other regional airports across the country.

EAS is a program where the DOT subsidizes airlines to provide service to smaller airports. There are currently more than 150 such airports taking advantage of it.

A DOT ruling required SkyWest to continue service to the 29 locations they were leaving until a new carrier could be found. Cape Girardeau Regional Airport found its new carrier in Contour, and flights to Nashville began Oct. 18, 2022.

Katrina Amos, Cape Girardeau Regional Airport’s manager, said the airport had been exploring options for flights to Chicago for the last few months.

“Chicago had served us well with the previous carrier, and flights to Chicago is where we saw our highest enplanement numbers in recent history. We’ve always wanted to go back to Chicago if the opportunity presented itself, but it had to be the right opportunity,” Amos told the Southeast Missourian.

The airport is currently expanding through various capital improvement projects, including a new terminal, T-hangar construction and taxiway reconstruction.

“This news does come at a great time when we are close to opening our new passenger terminal facility and we will continue to explore options to provide the best service to our community,” Amos said.

She said Contour would release additional information about the service change once the DOT approves it.

Comments

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Our city has no say in this matter? The contract with them was based on the destination of Nashville. What happened to the possibility of just adding additional flight to Chicago? Why not both destinations? I think with this request by Contour, it’s time to dump them and rebid the whole service. Yes Chicago would be nice but a flight South would be also, especially in winter months. Can they just request a complete change in destination without City’s approval?

-- Posted by 66Indian on Tue, Jun 18, 2024, at 2:40 PM
Sounds like 66Indian must fly to Nashville a lot!!!???

-- Posted by Proud Paw Paw on Tue, Jun 18, 2024, at 2:57 PM
Nashville is only good if you are going to Nashville. If you go anywhere else you have to fly to another airport. Adding too many stops.

If there are going to be two flights it should be stl and Chicago.

-- Posted by Legend89 on Tue, Jun 18, 2024, at 3:13 PM
Nashville may not be a huge airport like Chicago but they have many flights as a hub, both nationally and internationally. If they do go back to Chicago, we still need a southern flight too. If not Nashville then how about Charlotte. Paducah flies there.

-- Posted by 66Indian on Tue, Jun 18, 2024, at 4:05 PM
If the ticketing collaboration between Contour Airlines and American Airlines will continue in Chicago, then O’Hare certainly offers more options and convenience for my family.

-- Posted by Craig Roberts on Tue, Jun 18, 2024, at 5:59 PM
Chicago is definitely better for the city.

Nashville is driveable.

-- Posted by Cape2theFuture on Tue, Jun 18, 2024, at 8:21 PM
Nashville hasn't been a good option for my family.

-- Posted by Life Liberty on Tue, Jun 18, 2024, at 8:42 PM
Charlotte is one of the worst rated airports in the U.S. An absolute nightmare to travel through.

-- Posted by not_sorry on Tue, Jun 18, 2024, at 10:02 PM
Good decision. The numbers prove it. I'll miss being able to fly to Nashville for a weekend, but it is driveable. Last two times I drove, the traffic slowed to a crawl just south of Clarksville. Not fun.

-- Posted by JungleJim on Tue, Jun 18, 2024, at 10:21 PM
Why would they not continue Nashville and add Chicago back? Isn’t the new terminal built to handle multiple routes?

-- Posted by Robert Spurlock on Tue, Jun 18, 2024, at 11:49 PM
To continue with contour, they must improve service. Two out of four flights with them last year canceled and one delayed while I was in Nashville, returning to Cape. Delayed for more than 24 hours, resulting in finding another way home or staying at a hotel, serious travel issues.

-- Posted by Carrie Walker on Wed, Jun 19, 2024, at 5:40 AM
Contour has not been real reliable. Did the City know they were going to change the destination? The City has not been discussing it with the citizens, well, as far as I know. So why are we spending all the money on the airport if we only have a single carrier? Some things hard to figure out.

-- Posted by Sunday on Wed, Jun 19, 2024, at 6:56 AM
Sunday, the city is using funds from the coronavirus relief fund. I find it hard to believe that those funds still exist.

We should have some say in where the airline goes, as the airline industry and airport is highly subsidized.

Personally, I don’t fly out of cape too much if trying to meet a connecting flight. These small carriers are not dependable. We should negotiate a level of dependability with whomever we contract.

-- Posted by Sagamore on Wed, Jun 19, 2024, at 7:38 AM
Can’t speak for anyone else, but this would make the airport actually usable for me. Both destination options would be even better, of course.

-- Posted by Micah McDowell on Wed, Jun 19, 2024, at 8:05 AM
Flew once at dawn. Had a plane change in Pittsburgh to get to my destination. Coming home, had to do Baltimore, Cleveland, and Cincinnati to get to Nashville. And still had to stay overnight in Nashville. Never again. I'll do STL or Memphis.

-- Posted by The Papa on Wed, Jun 19, 2024, at 10:32 AM
How many locations and flights does the Paducah airport offer? Let’s do some comparisons.

-- Posted by Proud Paw Paw on Wed, Jun 19, 2024, at 10:44 AM
I believe Barkley airport in Paducah only offers flights to one location, Charlotte.

-- Posted by Proud Paw Paw on Wed, Jun 19, 2024, at 11:21 AM
I would like to see 1/2 flights to Chicago and 1/2 flights to Miami (think Caribbean / Mexico) OR Houston/Dallas.

Both Miami and Chicago offer a ton of non-stops to Europe, Mexico, Caribbean. And Chicago has non-stops to the West Coast.

-- Posted by not_sorry on Wed, Jun 19, 2024, at 1:06 PM
You can want and dream all you want, but unless a carrier is willing to offer a route, we won't get it.

It has to make sense for the carrier to take the route. So adding routes or keeping routes just because the airport can handle it, doesn't matter in the end. Up to the carrier what they offer.

-- Posted by tobedetermined on Thu, Jun 20, 2024, at 7:42 AM
-- Posted by tobedetermined on Thu, Jun 20, 2024, at 7:42 AM

True. But one would think it would benefit the carrier to offer flights that get more butts-in-seats?

-- Posted by not_sorry on Thu, Jun 20, 2024, at 8:11 AM
Chicago is better than Nashville as stated. STL is an option greatly missed. Now we must get ddriver both ways, drive and pay parking or stay in hotel for early flights. Please consider this option as well. Happy about Chicago replacing Nashville.

-- Posted by BGB on Thu, Jun 20, 2024, at 3:35 PM

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