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NewsNovember 25, 1995

Trans World Express is expected to reduce the number of flights out of Cape Girardeau Regional Airport as of Monday because of federal subsidy cuts. Greg Chenoweth, airport manager, said airport officials haven't received final word on what the revised flight schedule will be, but early discussions with TWE officials indicated one flight would be cut daily Monday through Friday, and all weekend flights would be eliminated because of cuts in the Essential Air Services Program subsidy...

MARK BLISS AND PEGGY O'FARRELL

Trans World Express is expected to reduce the number of flights out of Cape Girardeau Regional Airport as of Monday because of federal subsidy cuts.

Greg Chenoweth, airport manager, said airport officials haven't received final word on what the revised flight schedule will be, but early discussions with TWE officials indicated one flight would be cut daily Monday through Friday, and all weekend flights would be eliminated because of cuts in the Essential Air Services Program subsidy.

The airline currently offers three flights to St. Louis weekdays. It also offers two flights Saturday and one flight Sunday to St. Louis, and one flight Saturday and two flights Sunday from St. Louis.

TWE had received an annual subsidy of $254,525 for service at the Cape Girardeau airport. Effective Monday, that subsidy will be scaled back to $164,027.

"They are going to minimum levels, which I question, but I don't run their company," Chenoweth said.

TWE officials could not be reached for comment Friday due to the holiday.

The flight cuts come at a time when airport officials are working to increase traffic through the airport. Should annual traffic reach the 10,000 boardings level, the airport will qualify for more federal money.

"I would like to have seen more flights come in here," Chenoweth said. "We are continually working with TWE to try to get better flight service, to get them to get more flights, a more reliable schedule, whatever. Their feelings are that the people who want to fly are still going to fly."

TWE is considering cutting a weekday flight that leaves for St. Louis at 7 a.m. and returns about 9 p.m. Chenoweth said the flight averages three or four passengers round trip. The flight leaves Cape Girardeau and goes to Marion, Ill., before continuing to St. Louis, he said.

Chenoweth said airport officials also are working to reschedule flights to make it more convenient for passengers heading to St. Louis to make connections to other destinations.

"We have a flight that comes in at noon and then goes to St. Louis and then it comes back around 7 p.m.," he said.

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The TWE plane then leaves Cape Girardeau for St. Louis at around 7:15 p.m. Chenoweth would like to see the last daily departure moved up to 5 p.m.

"That way people can leave out of Cape Girardeau in the evening and be in Washington, D.C., or New York by 9 or 10 at night," he said.

Chenoweth said he's "still not giving up" on retaining a Sunday afternoon flight from St. Louis.

"The airline industry is really strange. You go through such fluxes, especially when you throw in the wild card of politics," he said.

Michael Miller, the Cape Girardeau city manager, said city officials will continue to work with TWE to maintain service and increase traffic through the airport.

"We are concerned about the cuts," Miller said. "We're going to work with TWE and attempt to get those services back and to work with them on some kind of marketing plan for the airport also."

Nationally, the Essential Air Services subsidy in fiscal 1995 totalled $30.9 million to airlines serving 107 communities. The average subsidy per passenger worked out to $47.

Under the FY 1996 transportation appropriations bill approved earlier this year, the total subsidy was cut to $22.6 million.

Subsidized flights will be cut to two round trips daily on weekdays under the Essential Air Services program. Flights to second-hub airports and weekend flights will no longer be eligible for subsidies.

Traffic through the airport decreased from 1994 levels for the first nine months of this year. Airport officials got a pleasant surprise when October's boardings of TWE flights totalled 604 -- an increase of 125 over September's totals. Officials had anticipated boardings would total about 520 for the month.

In 1994, TWE accounted for 6,330 of the approximately 8,000 boardings at Cape Girardeau Regional Airport.

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