{"id":104320,"date":"2016-07-01T23:17:24","date_gmt":"2016-07-02T05:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/boutique-air-ceo-stands-by-airlines-safety\/"},"modified":"2016-07-01T23:17:24","modified_gmt":"2016-07-02T05:17:24","slug":"boutique-air-ceo-stands-by-airlines-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/boutique-air-ceo-stands-by-airlines-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Boutique Air CEO stands by airline\u2019s safety"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A Swiss Air Force Pilatus PC-12 lands in Gloucestershire, England, in 2006.<\/span>Courtesy photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Boutique Air CEO Shawn Simpson on Friday heralded the \u201cextreme reliability\u201d of the Pilatus PC-12 single-engine aircraft \u2014 the plane his company uses \u2013 to fly passengers to almost all of the 23 destinations Boutique serves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real runaway success airplane,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cThe PC-12 is reliable and efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cortez City Council in May endorsed San Francisco-based Boutique Air\u2019s Essential Air Service (EAS) bid to the U.S. Department of Transportation, which will award the bid. Boutique\u2019s proposal includes three Denver flights and one Phoenix flight, though the Department of Transportation could opt for another flight configuration, according to airport manager Russ Machen. Essential Air Service is a subsidized U.S. program that seeks to guarantee airline service to small towns.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s endorsement of a bid that included the single-engine PC-12 drew concerns from local pilot Garth Greenlee, who spoke at the council\u2019s June 14 meeting. Greenlee told council members they were making a \u201cterrible mistake\u201d by endorsing Boutique Air because of its single-engine plane. He said he doubted the plane\u2019s ability to withstand frigid weather and harsh conditions while flying over 14,000-foot peaks en route to Denver.<\/p>\n

Simpson, though, refuted those concerns. The PC-12 is manufactured in Switzerland \u2013 a country covered with high mountains \u2014 and is built for all weather conditions, he said. Pilatus has built about 1,500 of the planes since the PC-12\u2019s debut in the mid-1990s, and the company continues to manufacture about 60 new PC-12s per year, according to Simpson.<\/p>\n

For the past three months, Boutique Air has been operating two routes that fly over the Continental Divide, according to Simpson. Two daily flights travel from Vernal, Utah to Denver and back, according to the airline\u2019s website. Boutique Air also offers twice-daily flights from Moab to Denver and back.<\/p>\n

The company, which was founded in 2007, has never experienced issues with the PC-12, Simpson said. \u201cWe\u2019ve never had any accidents, injuries or fatalities in our history, and we certainly plan to keep it that way going forward,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cSafety is very important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

There has never been a PC-12 fatality due to engine issues or failure, Simpson said. Rather, fatalities have been due to human error, he added.<\/p>\n

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, there have been 17 incidents or accidents involving the aircraft in the U.S. since 2002. Out of those, six resulted in a total of 29 fatal injuries to passengers or crew members, according to NTSB reports.<\/p>\n

In the deadliest incident, 13 passengers and a pilot died in a March 2009 crash near Butte, Montana. That crash was attributed to ice in the fuel system and the pilot\u2019s failure to control the left wing when landing, according to the NTSB. The pilot neglected to add an aircraft fuel-line antifreeze called Prist when fueling the plane before takeoff, according to a report from airfactsjournal.com. Additionally, the number of passengers on that flight exceeded the PC-12\u2019s capacity, the report states.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more the pilots and their training that are the biggest factor\u201d in air travel safety, Simpson said.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s EAS bid is still pending, Simpson said. The EAS contract with Great Lakes Airlines, which previously provided service to Cortez, expired June 30.<\/p>\n

If the U.S. Department of Transportation awards Boutique Air\u2019s bid, travelers could see ticket rates at the Cortez Airport for as low as $49, Simpson said. The company typically offers an introductory rate for three to six months upon starting service at a new location, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really want people to try our service,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cWe keep prices low, let people learn about our service and try it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the Boutique Air model, ticket prices increase as they become more scarce, Simpson said. The first seat sold on a flight will be cheaper, whereas the last few seats remaining will be more expensive, he said. There is no time factor with regard to the company\u2019s pricing, he added.<\/p>\n

Cortez will be the 16th community where Boutique Air will provide service, Simpson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really excited to be coming to Cortez,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re confident it will be an improvement over the service that has been there for quite some time.\u201d<\/p>\n

jklopfenstein@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Simpson touts single-engine Pilatus\u2019 safety record<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[916,21,318,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-104320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-air-transport","tag-cortez","tag-cortez-municipal-government","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104320"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=104320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}