Pan Am Passenger Traffic Increases
Airline Is Optimistic About MidAmerica Airport
Mascoutah, IL (October 20, 2000) -- MidAmerica St. Louis Airport Director Floyd 'Rick' Hargrove released passenger traffic figures Thursday that show an increasing number of passengers traveling on Pan Am.
In its first full month of operations at MidAmerica Airport, Pan Am saw 753 passengers get off its airplanes, and 722 people board them, according to Hargrove. Based on those figures, the airline has about 12 to 24 passengers arriving at or departing from MidAmerica on each of its flights there. Between Aug. 16 and Aug. 31, 411 passengers arrived at the airport, and 461 boarded airplanes.
Daniel Fortnam, the director of marketing for Pan Am, said earlier this month that the airline was selling about 100 tickets a day for its flight to Orlando, and is not doing quite as well for its flight to Gary-Chicago Airport in Northwest Indiana. Thursday evening, Fortnam would not specifically discuss the numbers discrepancy, except to say the airline is very happy with its passenger traffic at MidAmerica.
"September is traditionally the worst month of the year for the air travel industry -- we're not displeased," he said. "We have every reason to be optimistic about the future of Pan Am at MidAmerica Airport."
David NewMyer, the chair of the aviation management and flight department at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, said he doesn't think Pan Am should be encouraged by the passenger traffic figures.
"Should they be happy? Probably not," he said. NewMyer, however, did say that Pan Am is doing about as well as he expected considering the airline is only offering one flight to and from the Chicago area a day, a move he thinks hurts the carrier in trying to lure business travelers.
NewMyer thinks the airline needs business traffic to make the Gary flight successful. "One flight a day is not enough," he said. "Airline service, especially to Chicago, should be three times a day."
Pan Am flies once a day, six days a week, to smaller, underused airports near Orlando and Chicago. It uses Boeing 727 aircraft with 149 seats for the flights. Every flight going to Orlando comes to the airport from Portsmouth, N.H., Pittsburgh and Chicago. Every flight to Chicago comes from Orlando, and continues to Pittsburgh and Portsmouth.
In related airport news, the Public Building Commission decided at its Thursday morning meeting to pursue a settlement with ACI Contractors in an arbitration case about airport construction costs.
Also, Hargrove told the Public Building Commission that Enterprise Rent-a-Car, the only company that originally bid to offer car rental services at the airport, will extend its lease at MidAmerica for two years.
Information provided by the Belleville News-Democrat
David Van Den Berg Article © Belleville News-Democrat
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