Boutique Air Schedules First New Destination in Two Years

During this unprecedented time in aviation, it has been rare to see an airline begin a new route let alone a new destination, but that is exactly what is happening at Boutique Air. The San Francisco-based commuter airline has announced the first new destination to its route map since November 2018 when it began service to Victoria, Texas.

The carrier flies primarily Essential Air Service (EAS) routes across the United States and was awarded a contract for this new destination that will run for two years until July 31, 2022.

Boutique Air will be starting service to the Gogebic-Iron County Airport in Ironwood, Mich. on Aug. 1, 2020, from Chicago O’Hare and Minneapolis St. Paul. In addition to Ironwood, Mich. being a new destination, and the carrier’s first in Michigan, Chicago will also be a new city for the carrier and the first in the state of Illinois.

Although Minneapolis is currently served by the San Francisco-based carrier, the only destination it serves from the city will be ending on May 31, 2020. This means that there will be a two-month span when Boutique Air will not serve the twin cities, set to last from June 1, 2020, until the start of Ironwood service in August.

According to the DOT document concerning the new service, the carrier will offer service from the Upper Peninsula city to Minneapolis on a five-times a week basis, and Chicago O’Hare on a 13-times a week basis.

The routes will be flown using the carrier’s Pilatus PC-12 which seat between eight and nine passengers at an annual subsidy rate of $3,593,464 for the first year and $3,683,300 for the second year.

Until July 31, 2020, when the current contract expires, Air Choice One will continue to operate flights to Ironwood, Mich. meaning that there will be no service hiatus during the transition between carriers.

Given that the carrier offers interline agreements with both American and United Airlines, passengers will be able to connect to or from any destination out of Chicago O’Hare on either carrier which will open up a number of one-stop connection opportunities from the small city.

The following chart depicts the indicated schedule for the services to Ironwood, Mich.

The schedule for the new service to Ironwood, Mich. by Boutique Air (Photo: Boutique Air)

In the chart above, IWD refers to Gogebic-Iron County in Ironwood, Mich., ORD refers to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, and MSP refers to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. The ‘X’ indicates days that each respective flight is to operate.

This article was updated on June 4, 2020 to include the schedule service chart that was recently released by Boutique Air.

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Joey Gerardi

Joey has always been interested in planes for as long as he can remember. He grew up in Central New York during the early 2000s when US Airways Express turboprops ruled the skies. He was so excited when he could drive by himself and the first thing he did with the license was get ice cream and go plane spotting for the entire day. He specializes in topics surrounding the Essential Air Service (EAS) program. He graduated from WMU with a degree in Aviation Management and Operations in 2022 and now works for a major airline.

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