FLYING FROM CAPE

Commuter airline service at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport is sliding. In the first eight months of the fiscal year that started last July, Trans World Express, the only commuter service available, showed a marked decline in boardings to 3,166 passengers from 4,371 in the same period a year before.

Much of the drop of more than 1,200 boardings is attributed to a reduction in TWE's service at the end of last November when the airline's federal subsidy was cut more than $90,000. There used to be three daily round-trip flights to St. Louis; now there is only one. And the airline canceled all three of its weekend flights but reinstated a Sunday round-trip flight in February.

There have been concerns for a long time that TWE does little to promote its service from Cape Girardeau to St. Louis, where connections can be made for flights on major air carriers. And the reduction in service makes it appear that TWE's service is directly tied to whatever level of federal subsidy it receives.

But those who are most knowledgeable about the potential for air passengers at the regional airport say there is an untapped market of some 30,000 passengers a year. Greg Chenoweth, airport manager, even goes so far as suggesting that a competing airline might be attracted to serve this area, even without a federal subsidy. Competition, he says, would benefit passengers and increase the opportunities for making connections at major airport hubs.

Randy Holdman, former airport manager who was recently named to the airport board, thinks promotion could increase the number of boardings here. And if TWE won't do it, he suggests, the city should.

With an estimated 30,000 airline passengers from this region finding their way to major airports each year -- mainly by driving themselves or by taking a highway shuttle -- there certainly seems to be good reasons to pursue increased boardings at the airport.