Air travel boosted in Poplar Bluff thanks to grant

Grant to permit daily passenger flights; Cape airport seeks money for another daily round-trip.

A federal grant subsidizing new passenger air service to Poplar Bluff will have an uncertain impact on Cape Girardeau's business, airport manager Bruce Loy said.

"There is probably enough there for everybody," Loy said.

The $936,404 grant from the Small Community Air Service Development Program was announced Friday by U.S. Sens. Kit Bond and Jim Talent and U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson. The money will allow Air Choice One to begin daily flights from Poplar Bluff to St. Louis via Farmington.

RegionsAir provides three daily round-trip flights to St. Louis from Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. The 19-seat planes typically carry 550 to 600 passengers a month, Loy said. The cheapest flights are for people continuing to other destinations on American Airlines.

Cape Girardeau's flights are subsidized by the Essential Air Service Program, Loy said. The city is seeking additional subsidies to add another daily round-trip flight, he said.

Those flights are currently the closest air service to Poplar Bluff. "We get a fair amount of Poplar Bluff people," he said.

One advantage Cape Girardeau has, Loy said, is that passengers who board here go through security screening and don't have to repeat the process in St. Louis.

The flights from Poplar Bluff will be on nine-seat airplanes and passengers will not be taken directly to the airport terminal, Poplar Bluff Mayor Loyd Mathews said. But that didn't diminish his enthusiasm on learning the grant had been approved.

The new service will provide convenience for people who would otherwise drive to St. Louis or Memphis, Tenn., to catch a flight, Mathews said. The original cost estimates for ticket prices have been increased, he said, but that only reflects the increasing cost of fuel for all modes of travel.

Mathews was unsure where those prices would be set.

Air service will also help with the city's economic development efforts. "It is not normally the deciding factor but it is a factor that is weighed," he said.

The flights should begin within a few weeks to a few months, Matthews said.

"We have not worked out the final details," he said. "We just know it was something that was worthwhile for us to apply for the grant along with Farmington."

rkeller@semissourian.com

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