Lancaster Airport has a new commercial air service.

Cape Air will provide regularly scheduled flights from Lancaster to Baltimore-Washington International Airport, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced Friday.

Cape Air was favored by Lancaster Airport Authority, which had sent its recommendations to the Transportation Department Dec. 8.

Cape Air, based in Hyannis, Mass., also received the Transportation Department's approval to provide service from Hagerstown, Md., to Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

Joyce Opp, the airport authority's finance and marketing director, said service could begin by April, around the time the Lancaster County Convention Center opens.

Cape Air said it will offer five daily flights aboard nine-seat Cessnas that will cost passengers about $50 each way.

The deal includes a subsidy from the federal Essential Air Service program.

Lancaster lost commercial air service Sept. 30, 2007, when Mesa Airlines canceled its USAirways Express flights to Pittsburgh after learning that Lancaster Airport and other small airports would suffer a gap in EAS funding, which is managed by the Department of Transportation.

Lancaster Airport was included in the three-year EAS program in 2004 and used that subsidy to attract Mesa Airlines. In 2007, the airline received $1.37 million to fly here.

Cape Air will receive an annual EAS subsidy of $1.372 million to operate the service in Lancaster and $1.2 million for the Hagerstown flights. Those subsidies will expire Sept. 30 unless they are extended by Congress.

Lancaster Airport Authority said it chose Cape Air over three other bidders because of its experience, frequency of service and ticketing and baggage agreements with nearly every major carrier.

Opp said Cape Air was appealing especially because of its participation in multiple ticketing outlets known as global distribution systems — such as Travelocity, Orbitz and Expedia — that allow customers to book to and from Lancaster Airport.

Opp has calculated that a business traveler would save $157 in parking, mileage and other costs by flying Cape Air to BWI rather than driving.

BWI offers 2,056 weekly departures to 66 destinations.

Lancaster Airport Authority also was awarded more than $182,000 in grant money to market the new commercial air service to business travelers.

E-mail: pburns@lnpnews.com