HYANNIS - Buy a Cape Air ticket, and you'll get a cramped seat that doesn't recline, on a plane that doesn't have a toilet, on a flight that doesn't offer pillows or peanuts.
Yet while higher fuel costs and a travel slowdown have caused major carriers to cut capacity and several regional airlines to shut down, Cape Air this year expects to post its largest annual growth ever, because of its strategy of offering frequent flights on small planes to hard-to-reach communities.
The Hyannis-based regional carrier will have added nine routes in the 12 months ending in November, 33 percent more than it had in November 2007.
By the end of 2008, it will fly its planes 37 percent more hours. And while the Air Transport Association of America Inc. projects the US airline industry is poised to report $7 billion to $9 billion in losses this year, Cape Air expects to earn a profit on its estimated $68 million to $70 million in revenue.
"High-frequency, short-haul markets really are our bread and butter," said Cape Air's president, Daniel A. Wolf. "It's how we became successful."
Since it launched service between Boston and Provincetown in 1989, Cape Air has grown into the country's largest independently owned regional airline, based on the 656,000 passengers it carried in 2007 in New England, Indiana, Florida, the Caribbean, and Micronesia.
The linchpin of Cape Air's success has been a business model that centers on a fleet of 55 twin-piston-engine propeller Cessna 402 planes, each of which holds nine passengers. The small planes shuttle passengers distances of 200 miles or less, primarily between leisure spots located beyond bodies of water or other geographical hurdles.
By using small aircraft, the carrier can offer flights more frequently, which increases the chance the schedule will be convenient and attract more passengers like Miles Fish, who recently flew on Cape Air from Boston to Martha's Vineyard. Fish said he likes the little Cessnas, which fly about 20,000 feet lower than bigger planes. "One of the nice things about taking these smaller planes is they don't go too high," Fish said. "You get a view of the city."
Cape Air has also avoided the problems that most carriers have had paying for jet fuel because its fuel costs haven't risen as much. Cape Air uses aviation gas instead of the jet fuel most carriers use. Aviation gas has always been expensive, but jet fuel prices have caught up, soaring 60 percent during the first eight months of 2008, compared with the same period last year. While other airlines are struggling to keep up with the surging fuel expenses, Cape Air has already budgeted for the big bills.