Barnstable Municipal Airport (BMA) is in the process of signing a new passenger airline and exploring further development of the east side of the airport.
The commuter airline Southern Airways Express is scheduled to begin service in Barnstable on April 17, with four flights daily to and from Hyannis and Nantucket, Airport Manager Katie Servis confirmed on Feb. 24.
"They fly Cessna Caravan aircraft, similar to Cape Air in terms of a pilot and nine passengers – the same type of aircraft that Island Air used to fly," said Matt Elia, BMA assistant manager. "Their initial plan is to provide flights from Hyannis to Nantucket and back." A formal announcement is forthcoming later this spring.
Founded in 2013, Southern Airways Express is headquartered outside of Memphis, TN. Their current fleet of 24 planes flies more than 100 daily flights out of Norwood, Nantucket, New Haven and Providence in the Northeast; between Pittsburgh and Baltimore in the mid-Atlantic region; as far west as Dallas, Memphis, and Nashville; and south to Tampa, Jacksonville, West Palm Beach and Key West.
In June 2018, Southern Airways became an interline partner with American Airlines, allowing for single-ticketing and baggage transfers between Southern and American. And in February 2019, Southern Airways announced its acquisition of Mokulele Airlines, a Hawaiian-based airline operating Cessna Grand Caravans and Pilatus PC-12 commuter turboprops. Following that integration, the combined entity operates 1,380 weekly flights – more flights in the 50 states than any other commuter air carrier.
Southern Airways Express will be the fourth passenger carrier to fly out of BMA, Elia said. "Cape Air is year-round, and jetBlue is seasonal," he said. "Rectrix paused for the winter in December, but they have indicated that they will return in the future to do regular flights from Hyannis to Nantucket."
In addition, Servis and Elia said four developers have recently reached out to them for information about possibly building new hangars at BMA.
This is "the first time in a long time" that the airport administration has been approached about developing the east side of the airfield, Servis told the Airport Commission on Feb. 18.
Servis added that she also plans to ask the town council to fund a feasibility study for opening a restaurant adjacent to the newly opened Massachusetts Air and Space Museum at CapeTown Plaza as part of the airport's FY 21 capital improvement budget.
"A restaurant that overlooks an air strip is a very unique venue," Servis said. While diversifying the airport's revenue stream is one of BMA's long-term goals, she said, "the question is how much business would it bring in? What's your return on investment?"
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