Cape Air to start Mont. flights

The airline taking over the Montana Essential Air Service flights including for Havre will start making the flights between Billings and five other Montana cities Dec. 10.

“We are viewing the start of service in Montana as an exciting chapter in our organization’s history,” said Linda Markham, president of Massachusetts-based Cape Air.

“The opportunity to provide frequent, consistent air service, create new jobs and become a community partner to these six cities is one that we eagerly welcome.”

The company offers twice daily flights between Billings and Havre.

Cape Air is the third company to take over the federally subsidized air service in Montana since Big Sky Airlines, which provided EAS from 1984 through 2008, went out of business.

Havre was without the air service for nearly a year after Big Sky went out of business.

The federal Department of Transportation awarded the contract to Great Lakes Airlines which had lost its bid on the contract in 2007 to Big Sky. But Great Lakes was not able to smoothly take over the service due to a shortage of airplanes. Havre was without passenger air service from March 2008 until Great Lakes flights started in February 2009.

Then, in 2011, following a unanimous recommendation of the EAS task force in Montana, DOT awarded the Montana contract to Gulf Stream Airways, which later rebranded itself as Silver Airways.

This year, citing low passengers leading to higher-than-allowed subsidies for passengers in Lewistown and Miles City, DOT canceled the service to those Montana towns but continued the service between Billings and Havre, Glasgow, Glendive, Sidney and Wolf Point.

In June, Silver Airways filed a notice of its intention to end its service to the remaining Montana EAS communities in 90 days. Because it could not complete the selection of a new carrier in that time, DOT ordered Silver to continue service while a new company was selected.

The Montana EAS task force unanimously endorsed Cape Air to take over the service, over the proposal by Boutique Air Inc., which had two proposals to provide service connecting the five remaining EAS towns in Montana with Billings, and Great Lakes, which proposed service from Denver to Glendive and Sidney only.

Cape Air started in 1989 with Massachusetts flights between Boston and Provincetown and has expanded to making up to 850 flights a day, before adding the Montana EAS service, and carrying up to 750,000 passengers a year.

It provides service in New England, Florida, the midwest, the Caribbean and Micronesia — Guam, Rota and Saipan.

In Montana, the company will offer two daily round-trip flights between Billings and Havre, as well as from Billings to Glendive, Glasgow and Wolf Point.

Cape Air will make five daily flights between Billings and Sidney.

All seats on the flights will cost $49 each way, which includes all taxes and fees, Cape Air said in the release.

While the flights with Cape Air will not start till Dec. 10, the company said reservations can be made now online at http://capeair.com or by calling 1-800-CAPE-AIR — 1-800-227-3241.