Boutique Air has 10 Swiss-built Pilatus PC-12 aircraft, at least one of which will be dedicated to Tupelo should the company win the bid to provide air service.
Boutique began service between Greenville and Dallas two weeks ago, and company CEO Shawn Simpson said business “is going well.”
Able to check ticket purchases on his smart phone, Simpson noted a half-dozen flights had been booked between the two cities by 1 p.m. on Tuesday.
“They like what we have to offer,” he said.
In Tupelo, Boutique is offering five weekday round-trip flights. Three would fly to Atlanta and two would fly to Nashville. Another option is having all five daily flights go between Tupelo and Atlanta.
While he said it’s up to the community to decide which schedule it wants, Simpson said he prefers the split route, which gives passengers more options. It’s also less expensive to fly into Nashville versus Atlanta.
Boutique is asking for a yearly subsidy of $3.47 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Essential Air Service program to provide the service.
The company, which provides EAS service in nine communities, uses single-engine, Swiss-built Pilatus PC-12 planes. The company currently has 10 planes, but Simpson said Boutique is buying more.
The planes seat eight passengers, and with the pressurized cabin, they can fly up to 30,000 feet.
Mathew Butcher, Boutique’s director of operations, said the Pilatus has twice the horsepower of the Cessna Grand Caravans some airlines are using for service.
Boutique is the third of four airlines that submitted bids to provide service.
Sun Air and Corporate Flight Management have presented their cases to airport board members and city officials. It’s unclear if the fourth airline, St. Louis-based Air Choice One, will be meeting them before the Nov. 30 deadline the Transportation Department has set for recommendations from the city.
Simpson bragged on the reliability of its service in the cities it currently served, and also noted the load factor – the percentage of seats filled – is around 66 percent.
“I expect that number to be higher, based on the size of Tupelo and the history of service here,” he said. “The other cities we’re serving are smaller, and there’s a lot of potential here.”
But the airline knows it has to build its case to the public. Simpson said Boutique will roll out introductory rates perhaps as low as $39 to Nashville and $49 to Atlanta.
Cliff Nash, the executive director of the Tupelo Regional Airport, said he appreciates the fact that Boutique has done well so far. But he said he’s interested in what it will do in Tupelo, not what it has done.
“It’s an airline that’s expanding its markets, and I realize its track record elsewhere is stellar,” he said. “There’s always the concern and interest when you’re coming to a new market, we’ve been here, we’ve had the promises, we’ve heard all the rhetoric. We’re trying to do the due diligence that we don’t fall into the same traps, the same issues we’ve had previously. … We’re trying to find the right aircraft going to the right market with the right frequency to the right destinations. There are so many variables to consider in what will work best for the community.”
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