Airport businesses brace for loss in wake of airline's cutbacks

ST. LOUIS -- An airport taxi driver has a practical gauge for the economic health around Lambert Airport -- the amount of time between customers.

Right now it's a four-hour wait between trips. American Airlines' decision to cut by half the number of departures from St. Louis only will make it worse.

"There's no question about it," the Sudanese immigrant said from the airport's taxi staging area. "When they reduce flights, it'll hurt us."

American on Wednesday said it was forced to cut flights at Lambert Airport and close a reservations center in the city in order help return the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier to profitability, but that decision will cost 2,000 workers their jobs this fall.

St. Louis will become a smaller hub catering primarily to local travelers. The other option would have been worse -- making St. Louis a spoke city with service only to American's other hubs.

The cutbacks will mean inconvenience for both St. Louisans and business people flying to the city.

"The cuts are going to be a problem," George Camacho, a New York business traveler, said Thursday as he waited for a flight out of St. Louis. "I've had the luxury of doing things at the last minute."

Effective Nov. 1, American and its affiliated regional carriers will reduce the number of departures from Lambert Airport to 207 from 417; American also will end nonstop service to 27 airports.

About 1,500 Lambert-based American workers will lose their jobs. The reservations center will shut down Sept. 15, leaving about 500 workers jobless.

Gary Seibert of St. Louis, who travels frequently out of St. Louis for his work in international fund-raising, blamed the cuts on greed and lack of foresight, and added that most airlines had become the "Greyhound buses of the air."

The future of business travel, he said, is charter flights. "When was the last time Bill Gates flew coach?" he asked.

Richard C.D. Fleming, president of the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association, said the cuts, while disappointing, were not devastating. "We will have a hub that most of our competitors around the country would die for," he said.

"The absolute upside-down economy as the result of 9-11 and changes in the industry were not something this company or this city could control."

Manager Jamal Masoud said Holiday Inn Airport North had not calculated the estimated loss, but "it's going to be a big one for us."

He said the hotel, which hosted American flight attendants, crews and training workshops, already was working to recruit other business. "We cannot think about it negatively," he said. "We're working to replace what we're going to miss."

The manager of Marriott near the airport, Joseph Uhl, said business never stabilized after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the true impact of Wednesday's announcement won't be known for many months.

What remains unclear, he said, is whether fewer flights out of St. Louis will result in travelers bypassing the city altogether, opting to conduct business over the phone, for example.

"People who need to do business here will still find a way to get in," he said.

Agreed, said Deb Zipay of Pittsburgh, one of 12,000 Partylite Gifts Inc. direct sales consultants attending their convention here this week. "We are very excited and dedicated," she said. "Nothing will stop us. We will find a way to get here."

------

On the Net

American Airlines: www.amrcorp.com