Final departure: Big Sky terminates service, employees

Jennifer Cabaniss smiled and waved goodbye to the pilot of the final Big Sky Airlines flight Monday afternoon.

She turned toward the door to the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport building and sighed. As the plane rolled toward the runway behind her, Cabaniss began to cry.

The manager of Big Sky Airlines Cape Girardeau office, a single mother of three, is unemployed. She and three other employees got the message in fax sent on Dec. 19, the day the airline announced service was being terminated at a dozen U.S. airports. Big Sky started passenger air service from Cape Girardeau to Cincinnati on Nov. 18. As a manager, Cabaniss said she worked 40 to 60 hours a week. On Tuesday, she'll spend the day seeking a new job.

Tim Simmons of Commerce, Mo., is one of four Big Sky employees who lost their jobs Monday, the 60th day of Big Sky's service. He said he and his coworkers do not qualify for unemployment from their jobs because they did not work the state-mandated 90 days.

"This didn't just mess up passenger service," he said. "It messed up people's lives."

Simmons hopes to make ends meet doing jobs he's held in the past, cutting hair or working as an administrative assistant in the medical field.

Jennie Bradford was the single passenger on the last Big Sky Airlines flight from Cape Girardeau to Cincinnati on Monday.

"I'm sick because they're ending these flights," she said. Bradford has flown to see family in Ohio every month since moving to Cape Girardeau in July. Until Monday, she'd driven to St. Louis to board a plane.

"It's so sad they're stopping," she said. Her $96 ticket, a gift from her granddaughter, was taking her to back-to-back baby showers in a Dayton suburb.

In addition to the four Big Sky employees who are out of work, the seven people employed for the Transportation Security Administration are being transferred to St. Louis.

As one TSA employee, heading out the door of the airport for the last time, said: "It could be worse. I've got a job."

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

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