Pilot shortage blamed for high number of canceled flights in past two months at Quincy Regional Airport

QUINCY — A Quincy woman speaking to the Quincy City Council at Monday’s meeting shed light on an increasing number of canceled Cape Air flights at Quincy Regional Airport.

Whitney Mintert addressed aldermen during the public forum portion of the meeting. During her allotted three minutes, Mintert said she and her husband, Michael Joyce, moved to Quincy seven years ago. They have bought three homes in Quincy and “fallen in love” with the city.

“(Sunday) was the first time in those seven years that my husband and I actually felt embarrassment to be from Quincy,” Mintert said. 

A friend from Chicago flew to Quincy on Saturday. He planned to fly home Sunday afternoon on a flight scheduled to depart at 1:51 p.m. However, when they arrived at the airport at 1:30 p.m., no plane was on the runway.

‘Completely unacceptable and a crappy way to run a business’

“There was no one at the counter. There was no one at security. (The plane) was literally just gone,” Mintert said. “There was no notification to the passengers about the change in plans, and the flight status was still showing ‘on time’ online. I can somewhat understand Cape Air saying, ‘You’re too late and we’ve closed boarding.’ But I do not understand, nor do I accept, a flight leaving earlier than scheduled with no notice, notification to its passengers. That’s completely unacceptable and a really crappy way to run a business. 

“Our guests incurred additional costs for an extra hotel night and meals that were unplanned. The airport staff was rude and unsympathetic. This experience has left a really bad taste for Quincy with our guest. Quite frankly, I was supportive of the Cape Air contract and have been supportive of the Quincy airport, but no longer.”

Quincy Mayor Mike Troup then told aldermen he learned at an aeronautics committee meeting last week that “some 40 percent of our flights” from Quincy were canceled in the last two months.

“It’s not really a weather issue as much as a pilot shortage,” Troup said. “We’ve got to have better communications with passengers on that, and we’re still trying to work through all of those discussions with Cape Air. We’re trying to address it. There’s not a quick fix.”

Troup called it “problematic” when the number of canceled flights tops 10 percent. 

“Communications is a huge deal,” he said. “You may not like the message (about a canceled flight), but at least you can’t say, ‘Nobody told me anything.’”

Pilot shortage expected to get worse

The problem of canceled flights, however, isn’t isolated to Cape Air.

Airline Weekly, an online publication about the airline business, reported in March that the pilot shortage in the U.S. will get worse before it gets better. Joseph Allman, chief financial officer for Republic Airways, the second-largest regional airline in the country, told people at the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading Americas conference that he sees the shortage reaching its apex — or “its worst” — in the second and third quarters of 2023.

Gabriel Hanafin, interim airport director, didn’t provide figures about canceled flights during the past two months at Quincy Regional Airport. However, he didn’t dispute Troup’s 40 percent figure. 

“I know there’s a nationwide pilot shortage, and Cape Air unfortunately is not immune to that,” he said. “A lot of cancellations and issues have been related to that pilot shortage. We’re having some internal discussions trying to figure out where we are. There’s not much we necessarily can do, but we will try to do everything we can to serve the citizens of Quincy and the flying public.

“Honestly, I wish I had us looking glass to have a better idea. It’s really hard to tell. The whole airline industry is struggling.”

Cape Air starting to pre-cancel flights

Quincy Regional Airport agreed last June to a four-year contract with Cape Air as the airport’s Essential Air Service provider. Cape Air pledged to maintain 36 flights a week, 18 apiece to Lambert International in St. Louis and O’Hare in Chicago. The four-year subsidy is a little less than $14 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Stacie Schuchardt, Midwest marketing manager for Cape Air, said United Airlines recently started a pilot career development program to help aspiring pilots earn jobs in 9 to 12 months. 

However, fixing the immediate problem isn’t as simple. 

“That’s a question for every airline,” she said. 

Cape Air, based in Hyannis, Mass., flies out of 40 cities across the United States. Schuchardt said most of Cape Air’s locations have started pre-canceling flights.

“When we have a flight that isn’t booked or we can re-book a passenger onto a later flight, we would actually pre-cancel the flight — not the day of the flight but a day or two before the flight when we already know that we’re not going to have the crew available,” she said. “Pre-canceling the flights is a good way to cut back on the frequency. You don’t have the same crew demands if you fly less frequently.”

Troup wants to meet with Cape Air officials next week

She also said Cape Air has reached out to the Department of Transportation to fly to a different airport in Chicago where runways are more favorable to high winds that affect Cape Air’s smaller aircraft.

“All airlines are really taking this (shortage) very seriously and doing their best to mitigate the cancellations during this time until more pilots can get out there,” Schuchardt said.

Troup hopes to meet with Cape Air officials in the St. Louis area next week.

“Cape Air seems to be doing better than most commuter airlines,” he said. “We actually have pilots based in Quincy, and I think with the Quincy University aeronautics major, they are providing some feeder pilots.

“But we’ve got to find out what’s going on.”