Airport Officials Set Sights on Cargo Carrier
Terminal May See Increased Activity This Year
Interest Shown in MidAmerica Airport Flights
MetroLink Remains Key to Future
Why It's Tagged BLV
BELLEVILLE (June 11, 2000) - It originally was intended to be a cargo airport, but before that can happen, MidAmerica Airport will need to spend $7 million to build a cargo facility, which will be paid mostly by taxpayers.
The announcement last week that Pan American Airlines will begin passenger service at MidAmerica Airport has shifted planning into high gear. Efforts are under way to attract not only other passenger carriers to the St. Clair County airport, but cargo haulers as well.
 But while MidAmerica, which has four passenger gates, currently has no place for a cargo carrier or airplane maintenance company to operate, some believe that if you build it, they will come.
"We have to build an air cargo warehouse that an airplane can unload and load into," Airport Director Floyd "Rick" Hargrove said. Plans call for a sophisticated sorting facility with conveyor belts and scanners to be built near the 10,000-foot runway.
County officials have talked to several major cargo carriers, including UPS, Federal Express, DHL and Airborne Express. And, after the Pan Am announcement last week, at least two undisclosed cargo carriers expressed a renewed interest, officials said.
To pull this off, county officials once again are looking to the federal government to help pay for the necessary cargo facilities.
Throughout the airport's history, the project has been rescued by federal funding. Most of the $220 million construction cost was picked up by the U.S. government, with state and local governments covering the rest.
And the $100 million relocation cost of a military housing complex at adjacent Scott Air Force Base also was paid for with federal tax dollars after St. Clair County agreed to move the housing at no expense to the Air Force.
Now comes the cargo facility
"There is legislation that says the federal government will assist us in building a facility of up to 50,000 square feet," Hargrove said. "If we build any size beyond that, we would probably issue revenue bonds."
With the advent of e-commerce, local officials predict the cargo business will flourish making another tax-supported investment worthwhile. That's why U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello worked to make sure some money would be in place to build the necessary buildings for cargo service.
"With more and more people buying on the Internet, the pargo industry is exploding," Costello said. "Most major airports can no longer expand, which means cargo companies will be looking at places like MidAmerica."
The funding is included in the Federal Aviation Administration's AIR-21 budget, signed recently by President Clinton. The exact amount earmarked for MidAmerica Airport was unavailable.
Officials at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport have pledged their support in MidAmerica Airport's efforts to attract cargo service, saying it would be good for the entire St. Louis region. Lambert currently has no room for cargo expansion.
So why doesn't MidAmerica Airport which in its early stages of planning was billed primarily as a cargo airport already have the needed buildings in place? Several reasons, officials say:
- By waiting, a potential cargo carrier will have the opportunity to design its own cargo
center.
- Bonds could not be issued until the revenue was in place to repay them.
"From a business standpoint, any cargo company that wants to come to MidAmerica will want to design their own facility," Costello said. "So building a cargo-handling operation hoping to attract a cargo operation is not the way to go. "The county is offering a facility, and if the company signs a contract, they can construct the type of facility they want," Costello said.
MetroLink the key
When Pan Am President Dick Fink announced service from MidAmerica to Gary-Chicago and Sanford-Orlando, his message was clear: MetroLink was a big incentive to locate in St. Clair County.
"The thing that really caught our attention was MetroLink," Fink said. "We see that as a real opportunity to offer people something different." Having a way to shuttle passengers from MidAmerica Airport to Lambert is vital to the success of the St. Clair County airport, officials say.
"If we are successful in funding MetroLink from Southwestern Illinois College to MidAmerica, and I believe we will be, MidAmerica Airport and Lambert will be the only two airports in the nation to have a terminal-to-terminal light-rail connection," Costello said.
So far, the federal government has agreed to help fund MetroLink from East St. Louis to the former Belleville Area College. But plans to come up with the $121 million needed to take the light-rail line to MidAmerica hit a snag when federal transportations officials began questioning the need for a terminal at an airport that had no daily flights and no passenger traffic.
In April, U.S. Transportation Inspector General Ken Mead and Acting Federal Transit Administrator Nuria Fernandez toured the airport and looked at progress on the MetroLink extension in St. Clair County.
With Portsmouth, N.H.-based Pan Am on board, and more airlines expected, county officials are hoping the U.S. Department of Transportation will spend $60 million to connect the two airports.
The MetroLink extension to SWIC is set to open next year. If Congress approves additional funding, travelers could hop on MetroLink at one airport and ride to the other by the year 2003.
Doing so is vital to the success of the local airport, officials say, because it will enable travelers to fly into MidAmerica Airport, hop on MetroLink and catch a connecting flight at Lambert. In many cases, the time to travel between the two airports will be no more than a normal layover.
Costello said once flights begin out of MidAmerica Airport, he does not expect any problems getting the additional funds to complete MetroLink.
What's next? Charter flights to the Caribbean? Possibly. More passenger airlines? Certainly.
For more than two years, county officials have had discussions with numerous small airlines, but couldn't find one willing to accept the county's incentives on its terms.
Some wanted a guarantee the county would purchase a certain number of unsold seats, while others wanted cash incentives. Pan American got neither.
In addition, airlines were reluctant to be the first one to go into an airport that had no other tenants and no passenger traffic. But with Pan Am scheduled to begin service August 16, officials said it is just a matter of time before other airlines sign on.
Fink, who once lived in Belleville, said if all goes well, Pan Am will not only consider adding more flights, but also add charter flights to the Caribbean.
"I imagine other airlines will watch Pan Am for a few months and when they see it is successful, they'll be interested, too," Hargrove said.
Airlines that have been contacted include the retooled Ozark Air Lines, based in Columbia, Mo., and American Trans Air, the Indianapolis based airline that employs 6,000 people and offers both scheduled and chartered flight services.
Pan Am flies to Gary, Indiana, for easy access to Chicago; Sanford, Florida, which is near Orlando; plus Pittsburgh, Bangor, Maine, and Portsmouth and now Belleville.
American Trans Air, which was founded in 1973, flies to Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and New York. "They were one of the airlines interested in MidAmerica, but didn't want to be first," Hargrove said of American Trans Air.
Jobs in the offing
One of the hopes is that MidAmerica will someday bring hundreds of jobs to the metroeast. Today it employs 27. Pan Am plans to hire 25 people locally, initially for part-time jobs, to handle baggage, take tickets and provide security.
The jobs are expected to be filled before the first flight takes off August 16. Baggage handlers, ticket takers and security people will work 6.5 hour days and make about $20,000 a year.
The airline will also hire two, full-time supervisors for about $24,000 a year. But more jobs are expected, especially as more and more businesses pop up around the airport.
Businesses such as Cablofil, a French company in the process of locating its Western Hemisphere operation at MidAmerica. Cablofil is building a 75,000- square-foot building near the airport on Illinois 4 for its cable-related manufacturing business.
With Cablofil comes about 50 new jobs, said Sheila Sweeny, the developer. "They just started construction last week," Sweeny said. "There were a couple of factors that attracted them here: the airport and the available work force."
To help promote the area for business, Gov. George Ryan designated the airport as an enterprise zone, which offers incentives to developers. Since the mid-1990s, St. Clair County lobbied former Gov. Jim Edgar to set up an airport enterprise zone, but Edgar refused.
Then, shortly after Ryan took office in 1999, state Rep. Tom Holbrook, D-Belleville, cornered him at a dinner and asked him for an enterprise zone. "It was on a handshake," Hoibrook recalled. "We got everything together, put it on his desk and he signed it."
Building in the enterprise zone means construction costs everything from lumber and mortar to glued-down carpets, paint and wallpaper are tax exempt. "The idea is to provide businesses with incentives to develop the area," Holbrook said.
Interest is shown in MidAmerica Airport flights
Tickets for Pan Am's new flights out of MidAmerica Airport began selling Tuesday the first day they were available.
"We have bookings on both the Sanford (Fla.) and Gary (Ind.) flights," said Dan Fortman, a spokesman for the Portsmouth, NH-based airline.
Indications are that tickets for the first flight out of MidAmerica Airport on Aug. 16 to Gary are selling well, but Fortman said it was against the airline's policy to release the exact number of tickets sold.
"That is information we just don't give out," he said. Local travel agents say, however, they have had numerous inquiries for flight information since Pan Am announced its new flight service last week.
"We've had at least 10 in the last two days," said Julie Crunk, manager of Ambassador Travel in Belleville, "mostly for information about the Florida flights."
Pan Am will begin service daily from MidAmerica to Gary-Chicago and Sanford-Orlando. The airline will offer two flights a day to Gary and one to Sanford.
On Tuesday, the day Pan Am announced the new flight service, Trans World and Southwest airlines reduced fares to Orlando from $258 to $238 round trip. Pan Am initially is charging $263 round trip to Sanford.
But Pan Am boasts wider seats, better food and no waiting in long lines. Passengers also can park free at MidAmerica Airport.
The other airlines have restrictions, Crunk said of TWA and Southwest.
"You have to stay so many days, book so many days in advance, things like that," she said. "There are no restrictions on the Pan Am flights."
Why is it BLV?
A passenger who checks baggage at MidAmerica Airport will have tags that say BLV, but why not MID for MidAmerica or MAS for Mascoutah?
"That designation was made by the Federal Aviation Administration," Airport Director Rick Hargrove said.
For decades, the airspace around Scott Air Force Base was officially designated BLV, for Belleville.
So that designation will also be used for MidAmerica Airport, even though part of the airport actually lies within the city limits of Mascoutah.
Information provided by the Belleville News-Democrat
Marilyn Vise Article
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