TWE EXPECTED TO ADD FLIGHTS AT CAPE REGIONAL AIRPORT

It's not quite a done deal, but it is almost certain that starting Oct. 1, three scheduled flights on Trans World Express will arrive and depart Cape Girardeau Regional Airport every weekday, said Bill Mishk, marketing director for Trans World Express.

Currently, the airport has only two scheduled arrivals and departures.

The federal government has all but announced that it will subsidize the additional flights, Mishk said. All flights would go to St. Louis and connect with TWA flights for about $40, Mishk said.

Mishk said the three departures would be at 6:37 a.m., 12:05 p.m. and 7:55 p.m., and the arrivals would be at 11:45 a.m., 7 p.m. and 9:05 p.m.

Federal policy calls for every rural airport covered under its Essential Air Service program to have at least three arrivals and departures, said Luther Dietrich, a transportation industry analyst with the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C.

Budget cuts in fiscal year 1996 meant that the federal government didn't allocate enough money to subsidize three flights a day in all the airports covered under the act. But for fiscal 1998 which begins Oct. 1, the program's fund will double from $25 million to $50 million, Dietrich said.

The airlines' applications for subsidies include detailed reports of their expenses and anticipated revenues that shows a projected loss.

The federal subsidies are designed to give the airlines a 5 percent profit margin on each flight, Dietrich said. If the airlines exceed that figure, they can keep the profits, at least until the subsidy contract runs out, he said.

Mishk said it is possible that the federal government will subsidize an additional flight on Saturday as well.

TWE has applied for increased flights at only one other airport, Fort Leonard Wood, Mishk said.