Cape Air upgrades fleet

Editor's note: This version corrects the headline.

Ground crews at Havre City-County Airport began training Monday on three Tecnam P2012 airplanes that were delivered that morning as part of Cape Air's eventual refleeting of their Montana services with larger planes.

Cape Air Managing Director of Marketing and Public Relations Erin Hatzell said the new planes seat nine passengers and feature 30 percent more space than their predecessor, the Cessna 402, and feature more modern amenities like cup holders, USB ports, and Italian leather seating.

Hatzell said they also have more under-seat storage for carry-ons, and a high-wing design that allows for better views.

This refleeting will not change the airport's service pattern or prices.

She said Cape Air has been working with the manufacturer on this model for more than a decade, and represents a significant quality-of-life improvement for passengers and crew that she hopes will be in service as early as Thursday.

Part 135 Fleet Manager Bill Guinee is running the training program for the new planes and says they make the job of pilots notably easier.

"The (Cessna) 402 is a great plane, this takes everything the 402 can do and it lightens our workload and gives us more time to monitor what's happening and investigate abnormalities. ... It makes everything easier."

He said the P2012 features Garmin's new G1000 avionics which significantly improves pilots' situational awareness by implementing an alert system that tracks abnormalities during the flight and keeping the pilots aware of them without the need to cycle through screens and constantly check gauges.

He said the setup also features much greater screen redundancy, and allows pilot and co-pilot to transfer screens easily.

"We have two systems for everything," he said. "We can lose two entire computers and still fly."

Guinee said the 402s were great planes to fly but the P2012's will be even better.

"I love flying the 402, I love flying this, I just love flying airplanes," he said, "but this feels more like an airline ... Definitely an improvement."

Hatzell also praised the 402s for their many years of usefulness, but said this upgrade has been a long time coming.

"The 402 was a workhorse and it's been a great plane for us but the last one manufactured was some time in the 1980s," she said. "... This is the first nine-passenger plane to be manufactured since the Cessna 402."

She said the process of getting these new planes out was delayed somewhat by the pandemic, but for the most part it was just part of the normal process which typically takes a very long time between all the planning, flight tests and safety precautions.

She said the 402s will be kept around as backup.

Hatzell said Cape Air has bought 20 of the planes in total, with 10 more on the way, but they have a goal of eventually buying 100.

She said their Mid-west region has been completely refleeted and Montana is next on the list with plans to bring in eight planes in total.