Drive 5 hours or fly 20 minutes? Remote towns suffer from lack of year-round flights

"When I've had to go to Boston, let's say for a 10 or 11 o'clock appointment in July, I have to leave by 6 a.m., and sometimes that doesn't work."

"The reason: Cape Air, the sole airline serving Provincetown Municipal Airport, stopped offering year-round passenger flights to and from Boston two winters ago, calling them unprofitable. For Castellana and many other Provincetown residents, the loss is significant, since flying to Boston takes only 20 minutes in the air and the terminal is just a few minutes from the town center."

"So unless you come by private plane, you can only fly to Provincetown from spring till fall. Provincetown's ongoing effort to restore year-round air service is a microcosm of how difficult it can be to get commercial flights in isolated places. Many parts of the U.S. have no passenger air service, or only seasonal options."

"Most Americans who live in remote places want the option of flying for its speed and convenience, and airports can be economic engines that drive business and tourism. But flight routes to out-of-the-way areas are often money losers for airlines, sinc"

Provincetown, Massachusetts grows from about 3,500 residents in winter to around 60,000 in summer, but travel to Boston can become a long drive. A 120-mile trip can take two hours in rare cases, yet summer appointments often require leaving around 6 a.m. Cape Air previously provided the only passenger service from Provincetown Municipal Airport, but it stopped year-round flights two winters ago due to unprofitability. Flying to Boston now works only part of the year, since a proposed local subsidy to restore off-season service was rejected by voters. The situation reflects broader challenges for commercial air service in remote areas, where routes can be unprofitable and federal support programs face uncertainty.

Read at www.npr.org