Cape Air's New Plane Takes Flight
HYANNIS — After years of development, Cape Air's new airplane, the Tecnam P2012 Traveller, took to the skies over the weekend for its first commercial flight.
While the occasion was a big one for the Hyannis-based airline, Saturday's inaugural flight from Barnstable Municipal Airport to Nantucket was just minutes long.
"We did it on a quiet Saturday morning, but it's a big deal, clearly, at Cape Air, having been operating pretty much the same airplane for 30 years," said Daniel Wolf, the airline's CEO. "It's just huge for all of us."
The plane that Cape Air has been flying for decades is the Cessna 402, a slightly smaller, less powerful plane that holds one less person. Don't expect them to disappear anytime soon though. The Cessnas will be used for years to come while the nine-seat Tecnams are phased in.
"It's just a much nicer experience for the customer, not that the existing airplane isn't a good experience, but this is just taking it to the next level," Wolf said in a phone interview on Tuesday, still audibly excited over the first ride.
Cape Air conducted a worldwide search for a company to build them the new planes, going to eastern Europe, China and France. No U.S. companies responded to the request.
The airline landed on Tecnam, a southern Italy-based company that has been building them for the past seven years.
There's now five on the ground in Hyannis. Cape Air's plan is to have 20 by the end of the year and acquire 10 to 15 more a year for the next five years.
One of the reasons the search took so long was that a lot of smaller airlines are moving to single-engine airplanes.
"We really wanted a twin-engine airplane," Wolf said. "A lot of our competitors, or a lot of the airplanes that are out there doing service to small communities, are currently using single-engine airplanes. The reason it's taken a while is we really held the line on wanting to have two engines."
Twin-engine planes add redundancy, he said. On the rare occasion that something goes wrong with an engine, the plane can still run on the other one.
With a handful of Tecnams on Cape and ready for service, Cape Air is working to get all of its pilots trained on them. There are some differences with fueling, ground handling and baggage compartments, Wolf said.
The CEO was aboard the maiden commercial flight, as was Cape Air President Linda Markham, the company's two chief pilots and the two pilots flying the plane.
"It was important to us that as we prepare to launch our new fleet across the Cape Air network, we tested our first commuter service in our very own backyard," Markham said.
There also was a Nantucket man on board who was looking to get back to the island.
"He showed up in the airport, it was a 7 a.m. departure from Hyannis to Nantucket, and he showed up at the airport for just a regular flight. I think he's a resident on Nantucket — little did he know he was going to be making aviation history," Wolf said.
As the Tecnams are integrated across Cape Air's routes, the 402s will be phased into charter service, a new wing for the business.
Follow Ethan Genter on Twitter: @EthanGenterCCT.
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