Cape Air to offer daily flights from Long Island MacArthur Airport to Boston starting in July
Cape Air will be the sixth commercial airline to fly out of MacArthur Airport. Credit: Barry Sloan
Long Island MacArthur Airport is getting a new airline that plans to offer multiple daily flights between Islip and Boston beginning in July, Islip Town officials announced Thursday.
Cape Air will be the sixth commercial airline to fly out of MacArthur. The company operates a fleet of twin-engine planes that seat about 10 passengers for regional flights in the Northeast, the Midwest, Montana and the Caribbean, according to Cape Air’s website.
Starting July 3, the airline will offer four flights each day from Islip to Boston’s Logan International Airport. One-way flights will start at $249 and take less than 90 minutes, Islip and airline officials announced.
“We’re delighted to offer business travelers an excellent schedule and frequency to easily fly to Boston,” Islip Aviation Commissioner Rob Schneider said in the town’s news release. He was appointed by Islip’s town board to replace longtime Commissioner Shelley LaRose-Arken earlier this month.
Cape Air plans to depart MacArthur Airport four times each day between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. and then make four daily return flights from Boston between 9:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Islip Town wrote in its announcement that the service will be “year-round."
The airline will use an 11-passenger Tecnam P2012 Traveller airplane for the Islip-Boston route, according to Cape Air president and CEO Linda Markham.
“We look forward to connecting Islip with Boston,” Markham said in the town’s announcement. “We are confident that this innovative aircraft will provide an exceptional flying experience for our passengers and the communities we serve.”
The arrival of Cape Air at MacArthur comes about a month after JetBlue canceled a similar Islip-Boston route just two days before the inaugural flight was scheduled.
At the time, a JetBlue spokesperson said in an email to Newsday that bookings did not meet expectations.
“JetBlue was offering that route, but they weren’t getting any traction. … They took it away,” Islip Councilman James O’Connor said in an interview. "Somebody saw an opportunity and they’re coming in to fill that gap.”
Islip Supervisor Angie Carpenter echoed O'Connor's sentiment about Cape Air's announcement being a comeback for the town after JetBlue's cancellation of its Boston route.
“When JetBlue decided to discontinue its plans to serve Boston as planned for the summer of 2025, we were disappointed on behalf of our customers,” Carpenter said in Thursday’s announcement. “We’re glad to say Boston is back at ISP,” the three-letter identifier code for MacArthur.
O’Connor added that Islip could potentially get direct flights via Cape Air to New England-area destinations such as Nantucket, if the new Boston route “takes off.”
“Why do I have to go to White Plains or someplace else to get a direct flight to Boston or Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket?" he said. "I think it’s a great thing, and hopefully the community does, too."
Sam Kmack covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and previously worked as a city watchdog reporter in the Phoenix metro area, as well as an investigative journalist at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.
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