New Airline For Cape

Maybe ORH-Barnstable??? (MY COMMENT)

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New airline set to compete for Nantucket fliers
By ERIC GERSHONSTAFF WRITERHYANNIS - The names of the airlines to serve Cape Cod and the Islands read like a list of the dead: Provincetown-Boston Airlines. Air New England. Will's Air. Gull Air.

They were among the many. Some lasted for years, others for months. Most are now defunct. Ocean Wings still operates as an air charter business on Nantucket. Since the 1990s, the local market has been dominated by two airlines - Cape Air (which owns Nantucket Airlines) and Island Airlines. Both offer scheduled service between the Cape and Nantucket every day, year-round. They have faced little competition, save each other.

But next month, undaunted by the fate of others, a pair of Cape businessmen plan to launch a new commuter airline called Nantucket Shuttle Inc. One route planned
Based at Barnstable Municipal Airport, it would initially serve just one route, Hyannis to Nantucket, according to Robert Falanga, a Barnstable restaurant owner who said he is the venture's sole financial backer.

''It's been a long time since these people from Nantucket got a break,'' he said.
The new shuttle would try to lure customers from the established airlines by offering discounted fares on certain early-morning and late-evening flights ($29.95 one-way), and $40 one-way fares on all other flights, he and partner Mark Conway said this week.

Nantucket Airlines and Island Airlines currently charge $91 for a round-trip ticket from Hyannis to Nantucket. Both airlines also offer 10-ticket commuter books for $400.
Nantucket Shuttle would not offer commuter books, Conway said, but instead ''commuter-book fares every day.''

Falanga and Conway acknowledge no one has successfully challenged Cape Air/Nantucket Airlines or Island Airlines. ''They come and go,'' Falanga said of competitors.
But with no debt and no outside investors demanding returns, the company could afford to operate with little or no profit, at least for a while, both men said. 'Very profitable route'' They also think the Nantucket route could sustain three airlines, based on their calculation that the two other carriers moved 320,000 people between Hyannis and Nantucket last year, Conway said. ''It's a very profitable route,'' he said.

Falanga and Conway also said they would control costs by playing multiple roles in the company. Falanga would serve as director of maintenance. Conway, a Nantucket native and a former Island Airlines pilot who is the company's president, would also fly planes. ''All of our pilots are being trained to do every job,'' Conway said - flying, taking reservations and loading luggage.
Nantucket Shuttle's fleet of six aircraft includes five 10-seat Cessna 402Cs - a mainstay for both Cape Air/Nantucket Airlines and Island Airlines - and one eight-seat Cessna 414A.

With 49 402s, Cape Air owns the biggest fleet of the aircraft in the nation. Island Airlines operates a smaller fleet comparable to the new shuttle's. How the new airline would change the market remains to be seen. Harlan Platt, a business professor at Northeastern University who supervised a student case study of Cape Air, predicts prices would fall, in line with basic free market principles. But he said the burden of survival would be on the newcomer, in part because it lacks name recognition. ''But, hey,'' he said, ''maybe they'll bring Elvis back from the dead'' as a promotion.

Nantucket Airlines spokeswoman Michelle Haynes said the company has been ''watching'' Nantucket Shuttle - particularly its choice of name. Nantucket Airlines already uses ''The Nantucket Shuttle'' as a tagline.

''I wish them well,'' she said. ''I just hope they find another name than ours. It's kind of a big deal to us.'' Conway said a lawyer for Nantucket Airlines ordered him not to use the name. Then his own lawyer discovered the claim on the name had lapsed. It is now registered to Conway, according to state records. ''We're still moving forward,'' Conway said.

Eric Gershon can be reached at egershon@capecodonline.com.
(Published: February 24, 2006)