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Does Boutique Airways Have The Secret Sauce?

Chautauqua County could have a new airline in the near future.

We hope it doesn’t run into the same old problems previous airlines have.

Boutique Air’s application to the federal Transportation Department for an Essential Air Service subsidy estimates 12,564 passengers a year, an average of 34 per day at an average Essential Air Service subsidy cost per rider of $199.02. That would be a tremendous improvement over past performance at the Jamestown airport. It’s good to see Boutique Air is confident in its service — but other failed air service providers looked just as good on paper. It was real life performance that looked bad.

Sun Air Express, in its May 2014 request to the federal government to provide Essential Air Service at the Chautauqua County Airport in Jamestown, estimated 11,097 passengers a year flying out of the airport — an average Essential Air Service subsidy of $184.33 per passenger and an average of 30.4 passengers a day. The May 2016 Essential Air Service application by Southern Airways Express projected 12,046 passengers flying from Jamestown to Pittsburgh — an Essential Air Service subsidy of $177.69 per passenger and an average of 33 passengers a day. Both companies touted their willingness to spend money to advertise their flights, would provide flexible departure times, low fares and that the air service provider was willing and able to reverse the trends of declining users that had plagued previous airlines. As we now know, a comedy of errors and issues meant neither airline came close to such lofty ridership figures, culminating in the federal Transportation Department ending the Essential Air Service subsidy for Southern Airways.

The U.S. Transportation Department is reviewing Boutique Air’s Essential Air Service program application and, as was the case with Sun Air and Southern Airways Express, the application promises the moon. The company’s application gave four examples of Boutique taking over air service in low-performing airports and doubling, tripling and even quadrupling the number of passengers. Perhaps Boutique Airways has the secret ingredients to make air travel work in Jamestown. We hope they do. Because if Boutique Air can’t make the Jamestown airport viable, then the county should stop trying to provide a viable airport.

County residents can only blame the provider for so long. Eventually, the county and the inability to sustain an airport is the only common denominator in the failure of airlines in Jamestown.

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