With plans to drop Essential Air Service routes at Rutland, Vt., Saranac Lake as well as its Plattsburgh, N.Y. base, CommutAir is restructuring its network away from the Northeast toward building its Cleveland hub operation as a Continental Connection. The move out of the Northeast includes the elimination of Burlington, Vt – Boston , Albany-Buffalo and BOS – White Plains.
Dropping the routes is easier said than done, but filing to eliminate the EAS points at least triggers a rate renegotiation with the Department of Transportation as the department holds CommutAir in. At least four airlines have expressed interest in Rutland-BOS service including Gulfstream International, Great Lakes (GLUX), Pinnacle (PNCL) and Big Sky. Rutland grew three percent last year to 4,957 passengers, but the route was never profitable.
CommutAir is slowly ridding itself of its Beech 1900s, including those used for the Burlington, Buffalo and White Plains service and taking on Bombardier (BBD) Q200s subleased from Horizon. Related Story CommutAir serves 24 cities in eight states.