As the Cessna flies: Cape Air to offer service between South Bend, Indianapolis and Evansville beginning November 13th.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: AROUND INDIANA

IT ISN'T THAT FAR FROM Boston to the tip of Cape Cod, as the seagull flies--by car, however, the trip is less than arrow-straight. Kind of like the trip between Indianapolis and Evansville.

It's somehow appropriate, then, that the same commuter airline that shuttles the rich and famous to and from the Cape and the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard is now scheduling flights between Evansville and Indianapolis. Cape Air also is taking on the route between Indianapolis and South Bend, a trip that by car is straight but slowed by countless stoplights.

Despite a business name that seems out of place flying above the Midwest, Cape Air is perfect for the task, says its founder, CEO, president and sometimes pilot, Dan Wolf. The airline flies regular routes not only around Massachusetts but also in Florida, the Caribbean and Micronesia. Last year it logged about 130,000 flights and more than 700,000 passengers--a lot more than one might expect for an airline launched 18 years ago with a 45-mile flight between Boston and Provincetown at the end of the Cape.

Its growth since then has allowed it to build the airline infrastructure needed for the service it begins providing in Indianapolis on November 13--online ticketing, baggage handling and the like. "We really are integrated and developed as far as that side of the business," Wolf says.

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The airline, headquartered in the well-known Cape community of Hyannis, has a fleet of 49 small Cessna 402s and a...