Troup calls Southern Airways Express service unreliable, inadequate as he continues to push to end contract

QUINCY — Quincy Mayor Mike Troup’s frustration with Southern Airways Express continues to grow.

A June 12 phone conversation between Troup and Michael Martin with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Office of Aviation Analysis was followed by a June 20 letter to express what Troup believes to be “significant issues” with Southern Airways Express, which is in the second year of a four-year contract to serve as the Essential Air Service provider for Quincy Regional Airport.

Troup sent an Aug. 21 letter to Martin detailing conversations with former Southern Airways employees about passenger safety and problems with recently canceled flights. A phone call earlier this week with the DOT was another opportunity for Troup to express his frustration and hope that Quincy can end its contract with the Florida-based airline.

Troup said he had a conference call six weeks ago with Southern Airways officials to express his concerns. When Troup had another call with the same officials this week, he said it was the first time he’d heard from them since the last call.

“They wanted more time to evaluate and work on where they are. The issues we had raised, they also felt were unacceptable,” Troup said of the first conversation with Southern Airways. “I said, ‘Look, I’m not going to agree to give you three months or six months to make improvements. We’ve been dealing with this for well over a year. I need to see something in the next days or a week, not months.’

“Well, weeks have gone by, and I heard nothing back from the senior executives. They said (in this week’s phone call) they were disappointed, and I interrupted them and said, ‘Don’t tell me you’re disappointed.’  Southern made a commitment to get back to me in days or a week, and I’ve yet to receive anything.”

Attempts to contact Keith Sisson, chief operating officer for Southern Airways Express, or chief commercial officer Mark Cestari on Thursday were unsuccessful.

Troup’s June 20 letter expressed his dissatisfaction with Southern Airways’ performance revolves around several key areas:

• Frequent last-minute changes to flight schedules: Troup wrote that the changes often occur outside the airport’s operational hours, forcing Transportation Security Administration staff to stay beyond scheduled times only to have the flight canceled at the last moment. This has resulted in significant strain on the city’s staffing and budget, 
• Enplanement and completion rate issues: Troup wrote that “a significant number” of cancellations and delays occurred in 2023, with the flight completion rate falling “far below acceptable levels.” He said the trend has continued into 2024, further eroding passenger confidence and satisfaction.
• Passenger dissatisfaction: Troup wrote passengers have reported numerous complaints regarding the reliability of SAE’s services. Issues included a lack of notification for schedule changes, unscheduled stops and inadequate handling of delays and cancellations. The issues resulted in a loss of confidence among community members and frequent frustration from stranded passengers. 
• Aircraft supply and maintenance issues: Troup wrote that Southern Airways officials said a spare plane would be housed in Quincy to work around potential maintenance issues. Troup said the aircraft was never put in place. He also said Quincy was promised it would receive one of the new planes Southern Airways recently bought. Troup says the plane instead of being used at an airport in Indiana.

In his Aug. 21 letter, Troup said a former airline employee shared with him several situations he had with passengers. One of the situations involved seven passengers stranded in Quincy due to a cancellation. The former employee could only find hotel rooms for two of the seven passengers. When he reported the issue to Southern Airways management, he claimed he was told he would be fired if he continued sharing the airline’s policy information on support due to cancellations with passengers.

Troup also wrote about how a former airline employee was shown how to reduce the weight of passengers and luggage when a flight had more weight than allowed to fly safely. He said a Southern Airways plane recently suffered damaged wheels — at another airport — when it landed hard because of weight. 

“As I heard this. I became extremely concerned with passenger safety,” Troup wrote. “If an airline cuts this safety issue, what other safety issues are they ignoring?”

Troup said he recently talked with a local travel agency owner who said her clients are losing faith in Southern Airways’ ability to meet flight schedules. 

“I am disappointed that we have reached this point,” Troup said. “We have reached the conclusion that Southern has not delivered the type of air service that they presented to us while being selected to serve Quincy. Southern has proven that (it) is not capable or willing to improve these most significant issues that we have discussed on a regular basis, and we have determined that they have no interest in servicing Quincy or our traveling passengers.”

Troup said the Department of Transportation acknowledged the receipt of his second letter during a phone conversation on Tuesday.

“They understand the points raised, and they indicated they can understand why we’ve made the request that we made,” he said. “What EAS has to do now within their department — before they can take specific action — is have internal discussions. Once those discussions are held and a decision is made, they will get back to us.”

Troup said Quincy is not the first city served by Southern Airways that has raised a concern. However, he said he couldn’t say which cities those were.

“(The DOT) is definitely going to get back to us, I would think, in the next couple weeks,” Troup said.

Southern Airways’ contract calls for 18 flights weekly from Quincy to St. Louis and Quincy to Chicago. Troup said the airline recently announced a different flight schedule with fewer flights.

“It just makes it sound like we’re missing less flights because we’re offering less flights,” he said. “They’re able to show that instead of having 60 percent (flight completion) performance, now they may be at 70 or 80 percent performance.”

Troup said Southern Airways is on a pace to have about 4,000 passengers fly through Quincy this year.

“When they made the proposal for the EAS contract with us, they were trying to get us to 20,000 passengers per year,” he said. “Southern was bragging how it had 98 percent on-time performance during the month before it got the contract for Quincy. We’ve never seen that level of performance.”

Troup said the two Amtrak trains that travel daily between Quincy and Chicago had 15,000 passengers from January to May this year.

“That shows there are people in our market who want to travel, so it’s not that nobody wants to leave Quincy or nobody wants to come to Quincy,” he said. “Our airline is not providing adequate service or reliable service.”

Cape Air of Hyannis, Mass., notified the U.S. Department of Transportation in May 2022 of its intent to end passenger air service in Quincy because of a shortage of pilots. Southern Airways didn’t take over as the EAS provider in Quincy until December 2022.

Troup says the city must still work with Southern Airways as it tries to get out of the contract signed in August 2022.

“We would have to go out for an RFP (request for proposal if the Department of Transportation grants Quincy’s wish),” Troup said. “There’s so many different steps that would have to occur. Then whoever the new airline is, they need time to get staff and get everything they need to get their base in Quincy to operate.

“So we’re still going to be dealing with Southern for a while.”