Southern Airways Express approved to provide Essential Air Service to Quincy

QUINCY — The U.S. Department of Transportation has approved the recommendation for Southern Airways Express to be the new commercial airline to service Quincy Regional Airport.

Southern will begin service out of Baldwin Field on December 1 and will provide 18 roundtrip flights per week to O’Hare International Airport and St. Louis Lambert International Airport, utilizing single-engine Cessna Caravan planes with two pilots. The Caravan is a nine-passenger airplane.

The DOT Essential Air Service program order was filed on October 25 and calls for Southern to receive nearly $17 million in federal subsidies over the four year contract:

• 2023: $4,085,604
• 2024: $4,187,744
• 2025: $4,292,438
• 2026: $4,399,749

Southern replaces Cape Air, which ended its contract in May but has continued to provide service out of Baldwin Field because they were contractually obligated to cover the flights until a new airline could be secured. Officials at Cape Air cited a shortage of pilots for their reason to end the contract.

Cape Air, which had provided EAS support to Quincy for most of the last 15 years, had struggled to maintain a regular flight schedule and travel agents and frequent flyers had complained about the airlines inability to provide consistent service.