Three airlines make their pitches, City seeks community input via survey

QUINCY – The City of Quincy’s Aeronautics Committee hosted a town hall meeting in the City Council Chambers Tuesday afternoon to hear proposals from the three airlines who want to serve as Quincy Regional Airport’s essential service provider.

Air Choice One, Boutique Air and Cape Air each gave 20 minute presentations. Air Choice One’s pitch was given via video recording while Boutique Air and Cape Air were in person.

Airport Director Sandy Shorr explained the process and how the City is merely in charge of organizing the bidding process and providing the information to the Federal Aviation Administration. The City will make its recommendation by a June 11 deadline following the committee’s next meeting on June 2.

Their official proposals were previously submitted:

Shane Storz, CEO of Air Choice One, gave that airline’s recorded proposal, so he couldn’t field questions from the committee or the citizens who attended the town hall. Air Choice One does not have a codeshare agreement with a major career, which makes changing flights and baggage easter.

Boutique Air Vice President Tom Warren gave his company’s presentation and proposed possible additional flights to Minneapolis and Nashville along with the flights to St. Louis and Chicago that the airport currently offers. Boutique does have a codeshare with United Airlines and an interline agreement with American Airlines. An interline agreement is simply a commercial agreement between airlines to handle passengers when they’re traveling on multiple airlines on the same itinerary. This allows passengers to check their bags through to their final destination, check-in all the way to their destination or potentially be rebooked on another airline in the event of a problem.

An interline agreement is consider a step below a codeshare in the airline industry. A codeshare agreement i when two airlines place their “codes” on one another’s flights. The main benefit of this is it is more convenient to book each other’s flights.

Cape Air Vice President Andrew Bonnie was one of multiple people who spoke on behalf of the airline and touted their long-standing service to Quincy, new twin prop Tecnam P2012 Traveller planes, pilots and crew who will live in Quincy, and lower fares.

Cape Air officials also pledged a $75,000 marketing budget for the Quincy service and gave details on how that money would be spent.

Air Choice One CEO Storz had a marketing pitch where he said “Marketing, we do it all!” Their proposal pledged $20,000 to market QRA and Boutique Air’s proposal pledged $50,000 in annual marketing dollars.

Shorr asked people to take part in a survey regarding Essential Air Service. You can access that survey here: