The U.S. Department of Transportation will make the final decision on which of four airlines it will subsidize flights for at SLK. In making its decision, the DOT will include the town’s recommendation, as well as public comments, into consideration.

It was an unexpectedly heavy discussion for the board on Thursday as disease, family, loyalty and finances all played a role in the board members’ divided decisions.

Town Supervisor Jordanna Mallach and Councilwoman Tracey Schrader want to stick with Cape Air, the current Essential Air Service carrier at SLK. They like the “personal touch” and history of service the airline flying nine-seater propeller planes has given the town for 17 years. People rely on it to reach hospitals in Boston and New York City, it’s a connection to these nearby metropolises, it’s small and they like it that way.

Councilmembers Johnny Williams, Jeremy Evans and Ashley Milne want to make the jump to SkyWest, flying larger 50-seater jets to Detroit and back. It’s an opportunity to grow the airport, a chance to connect to western cities that aren’t in driving distance and a gamble, but one a majority of the board feels confident in.

SLK is part of the Essential Air Service network, a DOT program that subsidizes commercial flights at rural airports. The current Cape Air contract expires at the end of February. There are four companies this year vying for the contract — more potential companies than the airport has seen in a long time.

Ultimately, the DOT makes the decision on which airline gets the contract. But the public and the town can file comments for the DOT to take into consideration.

The board is recommending the DOT select a four-year contract with SkyWest on its Detroit line with a Delta codeshare.

The four proposals can be found at tinyurl.com/4n8rshtj and are the fifth through eighth documents on the page. Each document has a “Comment” button below it. Comments from the public will be accepted through today.

Evans said they are trying to meet the needs of a lot of different people. Each airline comes with pros and cons for different town residents.

“Somebody has wanted every single combination that’s out there,” Evans said. “We can’t do something that achieves all of the goals of every single person who might use the airport.”

Cape Air’s proposal is for a two or four-year contract that will include 21 flights per week. There are two potential options — either all the flights would go to Boston Logan or 14 would go to Boston Logan and seven would go to JFK. The planes have nine seats and the tickets cost an average of $118 for Boston Logan and $169 for a trip to JFK.

The SkyWest proposal is 12 flights a week, all of which would go to Washington D.C.’s Dulles International Airport or Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. The planes have 50 seats, and the proposal did not include an average ticket price. However, with the company’s projections of 21,840 passengers and $2.73 million in passenger revenue, the average ticket price would be approximately $125.

Airport Manager Corey Hurwitch said it’d be “bittersweet” to part ways with Cape Air. Still, it’d be “exciting” to see a jet on the runway.

The town has until today to draft its comment to the DOT. Mallach and Hurwitch will work on writing it. With the ongoing government shutdown, Hurwitch imagines that every day the government is not open delays the DOT’s eventual decision.

An Enterprise straw poll on the four companies, which is not scientific, drew 574 responses. SkyWest was the most popular with 46.52% of the vote and 267 votes. Cape Air was close behind with 40.24%, or 231 votes. Contour took 8.89%, 51 votes, and Boutique took 4.36%, 25 votes.

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Debate

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Mallach said 35% of Cape Air flights from SLK are for trips terminating in New York City or Boston.

“Their needs are being met,” Mallach said. “Maybe it’s not as luxurious as they want it to be, but they’re getting where they need to go.”

Evans said that with 65% of people flying elsewhere out of Boston or JFK, he wondered if going to Detroit on SkyWest would work just as well.

According to data from the DOT, Cape Air has had 9,080 passengers so far in 2025 — an average of 14.5 enplanements per day. Cape Air’s nine-seater Cessnas have an annual ridership at 50% capacity. But Williams said the 50% ridership looks different in practice than on paper, since people tend to fly en masse at certain times, and not at others.

Just like the local economy, plane ridership moves in peaks and valleys through different times of the year, Hurwitch said. As planes fill up in the busy season closer to 100% capacity, he said they lose the ability to take groups.

Milne said she was considering the “mom vote,” so she spoke to friends who have kids. She did not hear from many who rode Cape Air with their children. One family has four kids. They would take up three-quarters of the airplane, so they don’t use it.

Hurwitch said back when Cape Air added extra flights during the summer months, demand increased, too.

Still, there’s a big difference between nine and 50 seats.

“A 50-seat airplane is too big,” Schrader said.

With the airport building renovation currently underway — they finally dug a hole in the ground last week — Mallach felt it would stretch resources too much to do the renovation and change airlines at the same time.

Williams’ goals are to increase enplanements and to generate more revenue for the town.

“Do I think that this is the perfect time or the perfect circumstances to up the ante to jet service?” he said. “Nope. Do I think the perfect time is coming just around the corner? Nope. But I do think the time is now.”

He said there are a finite number of ways to generate more revenue at the airport, and increasing enplanements is a big one.

“I feel like this is an opportunity to reduce the impact on the town taxpayer and grow the regional economy through tourism,” Evans said.

He feels they haven’t been able to leverage the airport to its full potential.

Milne talked to the state Olympic Regional Development Authority in making her decision. ORDA told her athletes with Team USA — America’s international sporting body — can exclusively fly on Delta lines. The SkyWest Detroit line is Delta-branded. For Milne, this was a “game-changer.”

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has two training locations for most winter sports — Colorado and Lake Placid.

The UCI Mountain Bike World Series races at Mount Van Hoevenberg and Whiteface last weekend brought in the second-highest number of attendees at the Lake Placid and Wilmington venues — behind only the 1980 Winter Olympics.

But athletes did not fly in for the competition because they could not bring bikes on the current planes.

Milne said ORDA can offer connections with the state for grants, promotion of the airport or direct financial support.

The Whiteface ski area is now part of The Mountain Collective, a group of ski resorts from around the country. SkyWest planes have more baggage space and could accommodate bringing ski gear.

Mallach said many organizations in the area — like Adirondack Medical Center, Pendragon Theatre, the Wild Center — have names of donors on their walls, and a lot of those names come from New York City.

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Medical

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Schrader, who works in Long Lake, said she’s been surprised by how many Long Lakers have told her they drive up here to fly Cape Air.

“Our small communities rely on Cape Air,” Schrader said.

She personally knows two people who use the Boston flight to go to the children’s hospital there for regular treatments for their children and adults who use the New York City flight to get treatment at hospitals there.

“I really feel strongly about having the medical connection,” Schrader said.

She felt it would be a disservice to not have that connection in a rural area.

It’s not a widespread use, but an important one.

When her daughter was diagnosed with a digestive disorder while Mallach was stationed at Fort Carson, the doctors said there were two hospitals to go to on this side of the Mississippi — Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio and Boston Children’s Hospital. If Cape Air didn’t have flights to Boston, Mallach said her family likely would not have been able to move here.

Columbus is a one hour drive away from Detroit, Milne said.

“That’s not ideal, I know,” she said.

She wondered if people choose to go to hospitals in Boston or New York City because that’s where SLK offers flights to.

Schrader said these people are established with doctors at hospitals in Boston or New York City.

They are both in driving range — less than a six hour drive to either city. People could still fly to both cities with a layover in Detroit, Evans said.

Williams also said handicap accessibility is a big deal. Currently, Cape Air flights are not handicap accessible. SkyWest flights would be.

Williams said he looked at the decision through a matrix of affordability, comfort, reliability and accessibility.

He said he “feels dearly” for Cape Air.

“It breaks my heart when I talk to people who need that service for their kids,” Williams said. “None of us here care to sleep on the fact that people need that. … But one of the things that we’re charged with as board members is the greatest good for the greatest number.”

Schrader felt that Cape Air’s 17 years of service at SLK means something.

She likes that it’s a smaller air service. That gives it a more personal touch, she said, and flexibility to help customers. She said pilots will hold the plane if a passenger says they’re running five minutes late, to make sure they don’t miss their flight.

Evans said that a lot of people he’s spoken to have mentioned that personal touch as something they like about Cape Air.

He shares that worry about losing the personal connection. He also worries about if SkyWest will still want to serve SLK in four years after the contract ends. But he also felt SkyWest presented an opportunity they could not pass on.

“Opportunities of a lifetime must be lived within the lifetime of the opportunity,” Milne said.

The board also began its budget discussion on Thursday. Switching to SkyWest could bring in more revenue with a bigger plane, they said. It could also mean more spending to accommodate the larger plane — with a need for more runway and increasing parking.