BOARDINGS, FLIGHTS INCREASE AT AIRPORT

When the first candle is lit, Cape Girardeau Airport Manager Randy Holdman likely will ask for a cupcake with no icing.

Holdman celebrates his first-year anniversary at the airport with the quiet realization that he has made noteworthy progress, but has a long way to go before he's ready to put on a real party.

"There's just so much we can do to maximize the use of this airport," said Holdman, who took over as manager June 1, 1993. Holdman already has seen dramatic results from an ambitious marketing survey.

Trans World Express (TWE) boardings for April reached a five-year high of 510. This tops last April's total by 23 percent. TWE has had 1,648 boardings compared to 1,357 for the same reporting period last year, an increase of 22 percent.

"Nationwide, passenger increase has only been 9 percent, which means we've more than doubled our average," said Holdman.

The sharp increase in commuter traffic at the Cape Airport did not happen by accident. Holdman attributes the success to an aggressive move to a newer and more improved facility and a manager who never stops asking questions.

"It's a combination of our new terminal being open for a year and also effects from the initial survey sent to local travel agents," he said. "If you torture statistics long enough, they'll confess to anything," he quipped.

Holdman learned from the survey that if he changed the departure time to early in the afternoon he could get more customers for TWE.

"One thing we found is that travelers like to get to their destination and still have time to relax before they start the week in another city," he said. "So we changed the flights that normally left at 6:30 Sunday night to 1:30 Sunday afternoon. That flight is our biggest money maker right now," said Holdman.

He also has held various promotions to get input from commuters using TWE. "We ask travelers to answer two questions on a survey while they take the chance on winning two free tickets anywhere TWA flies domestically," said Holdman.

The questions are: What is your final destination for this trip? and Which travel agency did you use? "What we found is that not all of the people who used TWE booked their flight with a local travel agency," said Holdman. "This told me that I needed to personally get to travel agents in a 40-mile radius. I did that six months ago and I'm getting ready to do it again," he said.

Holdman has improved daily flights from an average of 14.3 in 1992 to an average of 20 in April. "The next thing I did was try to figure out how many passengers it would take for TWE to make money," said Holdman. "We would need to have at least six passengers to make money and we're averaging over that right now," he said. "Three years ago it was at five-and-a-half."

Holdman has a plan that would increase the number of flights and passengers. "I would like to see us have two banks of flights instead of one," he said.

"Let's say you're trying to get to a city and there's bad weather in that city. You would need an alternate flight to get to where you need to be. I would like to see us offer that alternate flight."

He also would like TWE to offer a direct flight to Chicago. "I think that would attract even more passengers," he said. "Right now the deal is very good. You can go from here to St. Louis and then to Chicago for only $112 round trip. If you think of how much time and gas money that would take, it's a big savings."

Holdman would like to advertise that very fact on billboards strategically placed along Interstate 55.

"I saw this in New Mexico," he said. "The billboard said, `Just think, if you had flown you'd be there right now.' I'd like to put a billboard about halfway from here to St. Louis with that same message. I believe a lot of people would think about it."

He would also like to get more than one commuter airline at the Cape Airport. "American Eagle, which goes to Memphis and airports in the South is an airline that we could maybe work on for five years down the road," he said.

"From competition comes better service, and that's what happens when you have more than one airline at your airport," he said. "In the mid 1980s, we had three airlines. I would like to get back to that."

But Holdman is the first to admit his plans will take time. "We didn't get like this overnight," he said. "It takes months and sometimes years.

"But I'm willing to do what it takes to get the message out there that we can continue too build to accommodate a greater flow of traffic here."