Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois finalized their recommendation for a new air service provider Thursday night.
Veterans Airport Manager Doug Kimmel says the board chose Contour Airlines, which also offered flights to Nashville as well, but the board felt there was more potential having Chicago O’Hare as the only destination.
“Not only providing our passengers the options that O'Hare provides for connectivity and to the national and really international air transportation system, but also opening up southern Illinois to the flow of passengers from northern Illinois and points beyond as well.”
Cape Air had a year left on their contract with Veterans Airport, but because of rising cost they canceled it to open the re-bidding process.
The U-S Department of Transportation provides air service subsidy contracts to airlines to provide essential air service to smaller communities and will decide who’s awarded the contract in the next few months.
