Cape Air grounds some flights due to hail damage

After an update Wednesday, the air carrier that serves Havre has grounded some more flights but has replacement aircraft on the way to resume full service.

Erin Hatzell of Cape Air told the Havre Daily News Wednesday afternoon that the airline, which took over federally subsidized Essential Air Service in Montana in December, decided to pull six airplanes damaged in a severe storm Sunday in Billings out of service.

Hatzell had said Wednesday morning that the routes — from and to Billings and Havre, Glasgow, Glendive, Sidney and Wolf Point — were expected to be back on schedule. After mechanics conducted a further review of the planes, she said Wednesday afternoon, the company decided to pull them from service for repairs.

Hatzell said Cape Air is bringing in three more aircraft to help with the routes, and the schedule is expected to be back in full operation by Saturday.

She said the company is setting up procedures to “recover the affected routes” if cancellations occur and that the local stations will accommodate passengers if their flight is canceled, although more details were not available by printing deadline this morning.

The Sunday-night storm dropped baseball-sized hail in the Billings area, with hail damaging some of the company’s nine planes it has stationed in Montana.

Cape Air normally has two flights a day, each way, between Billings and Havre as well as between Billings and Glasgow, Glendive and Wolf Point. The company provides five flights a day between Billings and Sidney.