Pan Am Cuts Back On Flights To Florida
MASCOUTAH, IL (May 23, 2001) -- Pan Am's new schedule takes effect today, and passengers will have half as many nonstop flights to the Orlando, Florida, area available from MidAmerica St. Louis Airport as last fall, something one analyst said does not bode well for the airline.
The airline will offer three nonstop flights a week to the airport in Sanford, Florida, near Orlando. On the other three days that Pan Am flies between MidAmerica and Sanford, the airplane will first stop in Gary, Indiana. Passengers won't need to change planes in Gary.
Dan Fortnam, a spokesman for Pan Am, said this service adjustment was made for cost-cutting reasons and not because of passenger traffic, which Fortnam said has been steady.
"It's not a real point of concern," he said about ticket sales. The company does
not release ticket sales figures.
David Newmyer, chairman of the aviation management and flight department at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, said this move does not bode well for Pan Am. He said airlines such as Pan Am and airports such as MidAmerica feel the effects first during economic downturns like the one the nation is experiencing.
"That's discouraging," he said. "I don't think that's going to help with the development of passengers at MidAmerica St. Louis Airport -- I hope it works for them, but I worry it won't."
When Pan Am began operating at MidAmerica last August, the airline offered one nonstop flight to Sanford all six days it operated. Though two flights between MidAmerica and Gary were offered when the airline initially started operating, one flight between the two airports has been offered for nearly all of Pan Am's time at the airport.
Operations also were reduced when the airline's flight from MidAmerica to Gary stopped going further east to Allentown, Pa., and Portsmouth, N.H.
In addition to those two destinations, the airline also serves Bangor, Maine, Worcester, Mass., Sanford and starting today, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Information provided by the Belleville News-Democrat
David Van Den Berg Article © Belleville News-Democrat
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