CAPE AIRPORT COULD GET SIX MORE FLIGHTS

Cape Girardeau Regional Airport could get subsidies for six more scheduled airline flights each week, the airport manager told a special joint meeting of the Cape Girardeau City Council and Airport Board in the unused airport restaurant Wednesday.

Airport manager Bruce Loy told the council that Congress has passed a bill to increase the funding for the Essential Airline Service program. If President Clinton signs it, foreign airlines would pay a fee for flying over U.S. territory even when they don't land, Loy said. At least $50 million from those fees would be earmarked for Essential Airline Service.

Congress established the Essential Airline Service fund in 1978 when it deregulated airlines. The fund subsidizes airlines flying to airports that would otherwise be without regularly scheduled service.

Trans World Express currently gets $108,120 from the federal government in subsidies for 10 flights a week out of Cape Girardeau. The U.S. Department of Transportation has already contacted TWE, the only airline with scheduled flights out of Cape Girardeau, to see if it would want to increase flights here.

Loy said TWE said yes.

Loy is trying to set up a meeting between local travel agents and TWE to figure out the best time for the flights.

TWE's current schedule includes flights landing at Cape Girardeau Regional Airport at 10:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. and departing at 11:10 a.m. and 4:40 p.m. Sundays through Fridays, with no flights on Saturdays.

If the additional subsidies and flights go through, they would start in the next federal fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, Loy said.

Loy said the number of people flying out of the airport is up for the first four months of 1997.

TWE flew 1,222 passenger in and out of Cape Girardeau as of April 30, up from 962 in the same period of last year. He said most of those passengers are not from Cape Girardeau.

He said the airport could do a better job of selling its service. TWE guarantees that it will cost no more than $40 round-trip to fly out of Cape Girardeau if the passenger connects with TWA. Parking at the airport here is free.

Mayor Al Spradling III said that if the airport could land a later flight, especially on Sundays, it would be more convenient to use the airport.