Steven Mitchell, economic development coordinator for the city of Carbondale, said the flights to Chicago will be huge for Southern Illinois. He would like to see the numbers creep upwards, back to 30,000. Recent years have seen 10,000 enplanements. He also said the airport had 30,000 enplanements in 1986 with air service from Ozark Airlines. "That requires the support of all of you, whether you just fly to Chicago or make connects through Chicago," Kimmel said. He also hopes to bring a second airline to the airport. Kimmel hopes the flights are so successful and draw enough riders to continue to operate without the federal subsidy. "We can apply for state money to facilitate the success of flights and to generate ridership," Kimmel said. That could improve the flow from northern Illinois to the Southern Illinois. He was approached by the mayors of both Carbondale and Marion to find out how they could get flights from Southern Illinois to Chicago.Ī study they had done showed that while many Southern Illinoisans want to travel north to Chicago, approximately eight times as many residents of northern Illinois want to travel south for business and pleasure. Kimmel also explained that the effort to bring flights to Chicago started after the last contract with Cape Air was awarded. The drive to Chicago of five or more hours is not an enjoyable drive. Louis and Nashville are their own worst enemies with drives of two hours and three hours. We want to make sure to get to 10,000 enplanements," Chaifetz said.Īirport Director Doug Kimmel said St. "What we want to do is to maximize enplanements. A flight or two could be changed to flights to Nashville if the community has a want for those flights. The airline will only offer flights to Chicago.
#Contour airlines news upgrade
It's a huge upgrade in service," he said.Ĭhaifetz said they have seen an increase in enplanements when replacing smaller planes, such as the nine-passenger Cape Air planes the airport used to use, with their Contour jets. "Our goal is to get people to try our service. Those departing would have to arrive at the airport at least 30 minutes before flights from Marion. Chaifetz said passengers will never pay more than $200 for a round-trip. Flights on the 30-seat jets are expected to run from $69 to $79 to Chicago.
Introductory flights will be $59 each way to and from Chicago. "We look forward to having you aboard one of our flights beginning Aug. Chaifetz said each seat has 36 inches of legroom. The flights will be on Contour Aviation's Embraer ERJ-135 aircraft which will seat 30 passengers with legroom normally found in first class seats. while Sunday's departure will be at 3:25 p.m. The Saturday flight will depart at 7 a.m. Saturday and Sunday will have one flight per day. Flights will return to Marion at 10:05 a.m. DOT should accept the bid from Contour.Ĭhaifetz said they will offer two flights per day Monday through Friday to Chicago. In mid-February, the airport recommended that U.S. Veterans Airport accepted three service bids from Contour, Cape Air and Southern Airways Express. DOT essential air service program, and rebid the service. In November of last year, Cape Air filed a notice to terminate service at Veterans Airport, which was part of the U.S. The airport is currently served by Cape Air, which offers flights to St. "We're thrilled to be here and hope to be your carrier for years to come," Chaifetz said.
The airline was awarded the contract for essential air service from the U.S. 25-MARION - Matt Chaifetz, CEO of Contour Aviation, announced that Contour will soon begin service from Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago during a press conference on Tuesday morning at the airport.
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