Cape air commutes start early as cuts hit St. Louis

Airline passengers will have to wake up a little earlier to catch the first flight out of Cape Girardeau beginning Nov. 1.

The first departure will be at 6 a.m. Monday through Saturday rather than 7:07 a.m. That could be good for business travelers, said Bruce Loy, Cape Girardeau Regional Airport manager.

"The intention is that they can catch more flights out of St. Louis," he said.

American Airlines, in a cost-cutting move, is slashing its 420 daily flights from St. Louis in half and eliminating more than 2,100 jobs. Cape Girardeau is served by a single commuter airline, Corporate Airlines, which operates as American Connection, providing connecting flights to and from the St. Louis airport.

The commuter flights are changing to match up with American's new St. Louis flight schedule.

The new commuter schedule has flights departing from Cape Girardeau at 6 and 10:30 a.m. and 4:50 p.m. Monday through Friday, 6 and 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, and 10:30 a.m. and 4:50 p.m. on Sunday.

"The good news on the whole thing is we didn't lose any round trips," said Loy.

The earliest arrival will remain at 10:05 a.m. daily and the latest arrival will be at 7:47 p.m. Sunday through Friday, Loy said.

Loy hopes the flight schedule changes will boost boardings, which totaled 6,068 through the first nine months of the year. That amounts to 674 passengers flying out of the airport each month, he said. Last year there were about 9,300 boardings, Loy said, which puts 2003 behind last year's pace.

Loy said it's hard to predict what impact the flight schedule changes will have on airline travel at the Cape Girardeau airport. But he said the impact should be noticeable in November.

"November is a busy travel month," Loy said. "We should see some fairly rapid results."

Local businessman Keith Boeller said business travelers likely will have a "wait and see" attitude about the flight schedule changes.

"Ultimately the key to using the commuter service out of Cape Girardeau is to make a good connection in St. Louis," said Boeller, vice president of finance for MedAssets HSCA Inc., a health services purchasing company. The company has a few staff members who might fly out of Cape Girardeau on business three, four or five times a year.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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