MidAmerica airport ready to test flights to Ireland

MASCOUTAH, Ill. -- A tour company wants to offer direct flights to Ireland from a long-struggling airport near this St. Louis suburb, starting next summer.

The St. Clair County Public Building Commission, which oversees the MidAmerica St. Louis Airport, on Thursday signed off on a marketing effort that would turn the airport into the takeoff point for a total of 20 direct flights to Shannon, Ireland.

Under terms of the tentative deal, the county and the regional tourism bureau together will contribute $100,000 to advertise the flights.

In return, Maryland-based Kenny Tours will make MidAmerica one of six U.S. airports -- Rockford, Ill.; Lansing, Mich.; Columbus, Ohio; Harrisburg, Pa.; and Buffalo, N.Y. -- to serve as departure points for its chartered Boeing 757 jetliner flights to Ireland.

The deal calls for at least two flights each week for at least 10 weeks from the airport, with 198 seats per flight.

The county board still must approve the deal involving the 9-year-old airport, which has never posted a profit. Its red ink last year totaled more than $12 million.

The airport, which shares a runway with neighboring Scott Air Force Base, had looked to find a niche with international cargo flights. But its $8 million warehouse remains idle 15 months after county leaders signed a deal to lease half of it to Trade Zone Partners LLC, a St. Louis-based developer.

That pact has fallen into limbo partly because of a dispute with the Transportation Security Administration over the terms of Trade Zone Partners' warehouse lease.

Robert Nay, Kenny Tours' sales and marketing manager, said his company tapped MidAmerica because of its convenience -- it was easily accessible, the parking was free and it's just 25 miles from St. Louis.

"You walk into that airport, you're immediately at the check-in counter," Nay said.

If the flights to Ireland from MidAmerica prove popular, the service may be expanded to include flights to Germany via Shannon, Nay said.

"The program will definitely grow, we feel, in length and width," Nay said.

On the Net

• MidAmerica St. Louis Airport: www.flymidamerica.com