Cape Air to connect Key West, Naples again

Cape Air, doing business as Continental Connection, plans to launch an air service between Naples and Miami International Airport on Dec. 18. The company also plans to resume its service to Key West on the same date. Cape Air had announced plans to shut down its service at the airport on May 19.

For a decade, the company has been flying travelers out of Naples to Key West in its nine-passenger airplanes.

"We hated leaving the market," said Cape Air spokeswoman Michelle Haynes. "It was the first time we had ever gone seasonal in any market. It was a direct result of a passenger drop. Again, it could be tied to a lot of things. The economy played a huge part in that. There definitely was a drop in tourism."

The Massachusetts-based company decided that there now was a market for people wanting to fly from Naples to Miami and hook up to Continental flights. And since Cape Air was opening back up here anyway and bringing back employees, the company decided to try out the Key West route once again, Haynes said.

She said that company and Continental entered into an agreement to provide the feeder service.

"We are partners. Continental didn't want to put big regional jets or their own planes there (in Naples). So we worked on partnership in which our nine-passenger plane could do it (the Naples-to-Miami connection)."

With Continental Connection, Cape Air will offer four round-trip daily flights between Naples and Miami and two round-trip flights to Key West. The round-trip ticket with taxes to Miami will cost about $156. The round-trip ticket to Key West will cost about $170.

"The Naples community has been extremely supportive," said Cape Air President Dan Wolf. "With the Continental Connection partnership and regular service into an international hub like Miami we have high hopes for a very successful season in Naples this year," Wolf said.

For a while, Naples Municipal Airport had no scheduled commercial service earlier this year. Some residents had called for the airport property being transformed into a park or some other use that would be more of a benefit to the entire community. Naples airport officials have been repeatedly meeting with airline companies to restore service. They said this job has not been an easy one since the slowdown in the industry after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Cape Air commenced air service in 1989 with its first flight between Boston and Provincetown. Cape Air also flies into Key West from Southwest Florida International Airport, and will continue to do so, Haynes said.

A few years ago the Naples-to-Miami route was popular. American Eagle used to fly to Miami International until it pulled out of the airport in April 2001. American Eagle served about 80,000 of the 120,000 passengers that used the Naples airport in 2000.

Once Cape Air starts back up, there will be two airline companies offering service between the Keys and Naples. In August, Sunrise Travel Tours started offering the trips on a 19-passenger British Aerospace Jetstream 31.

Gail Cureton, a spokeswoman for Naples Municipal Airport, said she believes the route to Miami International could be appealing to passengers. She said the airport will help market the new service, but is not offering a subsidy for guaranteed seats on the flights.

"We have free parking at Naples Airport. Quite a few people don't like to make the drive across the (Alligator) Alley," she said.

Ted Soliday, the executive director of the authority, said that airport staff hopes that this will be the first of several announcements about new air service out of the airport in the months ahead.

"The addition of Miami service on a scheduled basis is something many Collier County residents have wanted," he said in a written statement. "Cape Air has been an important airline partner in the past and we look forward to continuing that relationship."