A Cape Air flight takes off from Adirondack Regional Airport in March 2022. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — The Adirondack Regional Airport is keeping Cape Air as its commercial airline.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has decided to continue its federal contract with the airline. The Harrietstown town board had recommended that the DOT contract with SkyWest Airlines at SLK instead. SkyWest has much larger aircraft — 50-seater jets instead of nine-seater propeller planes with Cape Air — and a majority of the board felt it presented an opportunity to grow ridership and revenue at the town-owned airport.

But this recommendation was contentious. Supporters of staying with Cape Air said they like the smaller airline’s “personal touch,” history of service and destinations. Around 35% of Cape Air flights from SLK are for trips terminating in New York City or Boston. Supporters also said people rely on Cape Air to reach hospitals in Boston and New York City.

A large portion of the discussion centered on the destinations. Cape Air flies to New York City and Boston. SkyWest would have flown to Detroit or Washington, D.C.

“We had good options,” Airport Manager Corey Hurwitch said. “I was going to be happy with whatever was decided.”

He said they’re discussing ways to improve operations and ridership with Cape Air.

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 this month. The DOT chooses which airlines it contracts with, with input from the town council and the community.

The Harrietstown council voted 3-2 to support the four-year SkyWest proposal for 12 flights a week to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in October. It was a heavy conversation, as disease, family, loyalty and finances all played a role in the board members’ divided decisions.

On Friday, the DOT — which has the final say — chose to maintain Cape Air’s contract for two years.

The DOT cited the divided community opinions over whether to stay with Cape Air or switch to SkyWest in its decision.

Cape Air now has a two-year contract with SLK — lasting through Feb. 29, 2028.

It will continue flying round-trips to Boston-Logan International Airport 14 times per week and flying round-trip to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City seven times per week.

Cape Air will get a $4,496,758 subsidy in the first year and a $4,744,080 subsidy in the second year. Cape Air’s current annual subsidy compensation has been $2,794,783.

Cape Air flies the Cessna 402 aircraft, as well as the Tecnam P2012 Traveller. The planes have nine seats and the tickets cost an average of $118 for Boston Logan and $169 for a trip to JFK.

SkyWest would have flown the 50-seat Bombardier CRJ550 aircraft. 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 have been approximately $125.

There were four airlines the DOT could chose to contract with — more companies vying for the contract than the airport has seen in a long time.

Cape Air and SkyWest were the front-runners. Boutique Air and Contour Airlines has also submitted proposals.

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Which one?

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Cape Air has been the airport’s EAS airline since 2008. The council recommended switching to SkyWest for a chance to connect to western cities that aren’t in driving distance, potentially drawing more athletes and tourists through the airport and generating more revenue for the town. Some said families often do not fly out of SLK, because they can’t get enough tickets on the nine-seater planes. Three members felt Cape Air’s small plane size has kept the airport from being able to grow.

But not everyone felt that way. The split vote on the board spoke to the split opinions among the community.

The DOT received more than 100 letters from the community — 52 supported Cape Air, 30 supported SkyWest, 20 supported Contour and 15 supported Boutique.

“Although a majority of the town council did not recommend Cape Air — more than half of the community comments were favorable to the airline,” Cindy Baraban, the DOT’s deputy assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs, wrote in the DOT 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.

According to data from the DOT, Cape Air had 9,080 passengers from January to October 2025 — an average of 14.5 enplanements per day. Cape Air’s nine-seater Cessnas have an annual ridership at 50% capacity. But councilmembers 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.

To read more about the discussion, go to tinyurl.com/2s224jez.

Hurwitch said he’s just happy the process is over. It took longer than expected. The decision on which airline would get the subsidy contract was delayed for several months due to the 43-day government shutdown this fall. With the current contract ending on Feb. 28, Hurwitch said people have been hesitant to book flights as there’s uncertainty over the future. But he expected Cape Air to continue flying even if the contract ended.

“Cape Air is a fantastic community partner and I look forward to working with them to increase ridership and promote the flights to JFK and Boston,” Town Supervisor Jordanna Mallach told the Enterprise. “I am appreciative to everyone who contacted the town board (regarding) the process and value many perspectives they presented.”

Hurwitch said keeping with Cape Air means the airport won’t have to make major changes to switch airline. He said they’ve got a lot going on right now with the airport terminal being renovated currently.

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

A change would have been welcome, he said, but it would also come with lots of work.

The contract includes Cape Air spending $75,000 for marketing. Hurwitch said the town has asked the airline for more transparency in where those funds go.

Baraban said Cape Air has been reliable in the 17 years it has served the Saranac Lake area. She said Boston and NYC are hubs for air travel.

“The community will continue to have excellent access to the national air transportation system,” she wrote.

Baraban said Cape Air had “the only eligible proposal.”

SkyWest would have used the 50-passenger Bombardier CRJ550 aircraft. Baraban said SLK is not certified to handle that big of an aircraft, so its proposal was ineligible.

Hurwitch felt the DOT placed “unnecessary emphasis” on the certification. He had talked with the Federal Aviation Administration and found that SLK is already doing everything required for the certificate needed for larger scheduled aircraft and was only missing a full-scale emergency exercise. He said they could have done a full-scale emergency exercise to get that certification.

Hurwitch said it would be “discouraging” if that certification was the sole reason for the DOT’s decision, but it appears the community comments were also taken into account.

Contour’ bid was rejected, because it’s a public charter and not scheduled air transportation — a requirement of the EAS. It would have needed a waiver, but did not get one from the town.

Boutique’s bid was rejected, because its proposal was for a single-engine plane — EAS requires two engines. It would have needed a waiver, but did not get one from the town.

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TSA working without pay again

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Transportation Security Administration staff at SLK are again working without pay during a government shutdown. The now-five-day partial government shutdown impacting the Department of Homeland Security started when DHS funding lapsed on Saturday.

DHS is a large department encompassing things like TSA, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Democrats are opposing approving funding for DHS unless a list of 10 immigration enforcement reforms are met.

These include a ban on agents wearing masks, mandatory body cameras, requiring ICE to get judicial warrants to enter private property instead of administrative warrants, stricter use-of-force policies and new training standards.

These demands come after ICE agents killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, and have injured or been violent toward numerous other U.S. citizens.

ICE itself is not impacted much by the shutdown. The DHS agency previously got tens of billions of dollars in additional funding in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Congress is currently out of session. Though Republicans have a majority in the Senate, votes last week were not able to crack the 60% threshold needed to approve DHS funding. All Democrats except Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman are voting against the funding.

The Senate is not expected to vote again until later this month.

Hurwitch spoke highly of TSA staff at SLK.

“It’s unfortunate that they are stuck in the middle, because they perform their jobs day-in and day-out regardless of what’s going on in the politics,” Hurwitch said. “They get the short straw.”