Cape Air woos business travelers

June 26--About 20 business and industry executives attended a free luncheon Monday in the third-floor training room at the Commerce Center designed not only to tell them how easy and affordable it is to fly with Cape Air, but also to get them to try it.

The companies received a round trip Cape Air to St. Louis ticket.

"To sum it up, we really think it's affordable at a flat rate of $49.97 each way, and convenient -- to book for connections in St. Louis, for baggage arrangements, checked all the way through to your final destinations, and for the shuttle, which allows you to go through security only once in Owensboro," said Cape Air's Stacey Putnam Ross, Midwest marketing manager.

Cape Air has been providing daily nonstop air service to St. Louis since December 2011. The provider has charted a 57 percent increase in passengers since May -- from 379 in its inaugural month to 595 in May. And the June number is expected to be 661. Those numbers represent the sum of both directions.

The regional airport has a four-year contract with Cape Air to provide Essential Air Service back and forth from Owensboro and St. Louis. That service, which is federally subsidized, targets the business traveler, said Bob Whitmer, manager of the Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport.

"We've had Allegiant, which is nice and primarily for the leisure traveler, but we needed someone else for the business traveler," he said.

The luncheon hosts -- the regional airport, Cape Air and Lambert-St. Louis International Airport -- worked with the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce to identify companies whose executives fly frequently.

Ross compared Cape Air's round trip ticket cost of $99.94 to the cost of driving to other regional airports using the standard mileage rate for business miles driven. The round trip drive to Louisville is estimated at $196.47; Nashville, $156.51; and St. Louis, $244.20.

The flight time from Owensboro to St. Louis is just more than one hour. Driving to the regional airports takes from two hours to 3.75 hours depending on the destination.

Once travelers get to St. Louis, ?

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that international airport has 60 destinations, said Brian Kinsey, assistant director of marketing and business development in highlighting benefits of flying out of St. Louis.

Kinsey presented St. Louis' service/price comparisons to Nashville, Evansville and Louisville.

"The presentation they gave today opened my eyes to the service they have, and I'll go back and talk to my company about using it," said Mike Dechman, materials and business travel specialist for Southern Star.

Dechman said Cape Air may be able to help his company since employees travel back and forth to see customers in the Kansas area.

Steve Johnson, with Owensboro Medical Health System, said the luncheon was a great learning event. A lot of the hospital's employees are traveling to Wisconsin for training in Epic, the new medical records software. Cape Air could be an option as the hospital looks at affordable travel, he said.

"And from a physician recruitment standpoint, any opportunity for Owensboro to be more accessible by air is all part of that package," Johnson said.

Joy Campbell, 691-7299, [email protected]

Copyright 2012 - Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.