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July 30, 2010

Let's not pay for more empty seats on bigger plane

I wish to reply to Sunday's letter by Kevin McGinnis.

The status quo means Colgan Airways gets paid for every empty seat on a 34-seat passenger airplane; this does not make any sense. Colgan Airways never even came close to filling half of the 19 seats on its Beech 1900D airplane, yet somehow it convinces the powers to be to spend tens of thousands of dollars on costly, unnecessary upgrades to handle the bigger airplane.

Augusta is just 30 minutes by air to Boston. How many members of the air crew are needed to provide care to the passengers for such a short flight?

The Cessna 402 twin-engine airplane has provided safe, dependable air service to the Rockland Regional Airport for the last two years and significantly increased the passenger traffic to the point that a new airport building is being built.

The Cessna 402 passenger airplane does not require two pilots to fly it, thus saving additional money that keeps the air fare lower. Because Cape Air's airplane has only 10 seats to fill, fewer tax dollars would be needed to pay for fewer empty seats.

In today's economy, let's use some common sense and give Cape Air the opportunity to provide sensible, economical air service at lower cost, not only to Augusta, but to save federal tax dollars that can better used elsewhere.

Frank Powers

Augusta

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