(Host) Airport officials in Rutland say people are finally catching on to the benefits of flying in and out of the small airport.
As VPR’s Nina Keck reports, passenger service at Southern Vermont Regional Airport is at a 22-year high.
(Airplane taking off)
(Keck) Cape Air, the Massachusetts-based commuter airline, offers three roundtrip flights a day between Rutland and Boston. Andrew Bonney, vice president of planning at Cape Air, says the growth they’ve seen in Rutland has been tremendous.
(Bonney) "When Cape Air took over the service in November 2007, they were averaging 4,000-5,000 passengers on the route per year. And this summer on an annualized basis we are now carrying over 10,000. So in three years we’ve just about doubled the number of passengers using the Boston to Rutland service."
(Keck) David Carman, who manages Rutland’s airport, says ridership this past July and August was up 35 percent over last year and he says advance bookings are up 30 percent, as well.
(Carman) "It’s actually exceptional. July, August and September were probably the best months in 20 to 25 years."
(Keck) Carman say part of the growth is due to the fact that more Vermonters know about Cape Air and its connections with Jet Blue.
With parking expensive and security a headache at many larger airports, he says flying out of Rutland, where parking is free and security lines short, is a lot easier.
Cape Air’s Andrew Bonney says the company’s success in Rutland encouraged the airline to expand into other federally subsidized areas like upstate New York, southwestern Illinois and the mid-Atlantic.
(Bonney) "Rutland was very much a model for Cape Air. It was the first essential air service community we added in six or eight years when we started in 2007. And immediately it was clear that the service was resonating with customers. We were able to put in place the trifecta that you need for a small community air service, which is: reliability, low fares and frequency."
(Keck) Bonney says since they began serving Midwestern cities last November, passenger service in that market has nearly quadrupled.
Back in Rutland, he says passenger service has been so good they’re hoping to add a forth daily flight to Boston next summer.
For VPR News, I’m Nina Keck in Rutland.