Pan Am Quietly Ends MidAmerica Service
Agents Say Lack Of Marketing Hurt
Belleville, Illinois (November 2, 2001) -- Pan American Airways -- the only passenger airline serving MidAmerica St. Louis Airport -- will halt service there December 3, airline officials said Thursday.
Without making a formal announcement, Pan Am inconspicuously revealed its decision to end service to MidAmerica in the seventh paragraph of an eight-paragraph news release that touted the Portsmouth, N.H.-based airline's upcoming service to Baltimore/Washington International Airport.
The news release said service will end at MidAmerica to provide for the Baltimore service, and for new service to St. Petersburg, Fla., and expanded service to other cities Pan Am currently serves, which includes Gary, Ind., and Sanford, Fla.
When questioned, Pan Am spokesman John Nadolny declined to elaborate on the airline's decision to abandon MidAmerica, saying the press release explained Pan Am's move.
Local travel agents blamed the scheduled end of flights at MidAmerica on low passenger volume, a problem that worsened dramatically after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.
"I truly am not surprised, but I am sad that this happened," said Lee McTeer, manager of the AAA Travel office in Belleville.
Pan Am began flying out of MidAmerica in August 2000, but in recent months its service had grown increasingly unreliable, McTeer said.
"They were canceling flights because there were not enough people on the flights," McTeer said.
The airline's action apparently caught St. Clair County officials off-guard. St. Clair County Administrator Dan Maher said he was not aware of the scheduled demise of Pan Am's service to MidAmerica.
"That's not good news," Maher said when informed of Pan Am's decision.
Floyd "Rick" Hargrove, the airport director at MidAmerica, was out of town and not available for comment Thursday. St. Clair County Board Chairman John Baricevic could not be reached for comment.
Two members of the St. Clair County Public Building Commission -- James Nations and Luther Jackson -- also said they had not been informed and declined further comment. The building commission oversees the airport.
County officials were worried about Pan Am's health, in light of severe problems in the airline industry, brought on by the terrorist attacks and economic recession, Maher said, adding that the airline's reduction of nonstop flights to Florida in May was not a good sign.
"Anytime you start taking the direct flights off-line, you start losing people," he said. "As we watched them pull back their service level, we wondered what they were up to."
Maher said the airline was not aggressive enough in advertising itself.
He noted that the county offered Pan Am money to help with advertising, provided the airline matched the county's expenditure.
"They didn't take advantage of the money we offered them," he said.
"If you're going to make something like this work, you've got to advertise the hell out of it."
Robert Hopwood, manager of All World Travel agency in Belleville, said he was "not terribly" surprised to hear that Pan American planned to end its flights to MidAmerica.
"People just are not taking advantage of what they had to offer," Hopwood said of the airport. "I don't think it was marketed as well as it could've been."
Pan American's woes were exacerbated since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when airline travel plummeted, Hopwood said. Major carriers, such as Southwest Airlines, responded by slashing their fares, making it harder than ever for small players such as Pan Am to compete, he said.
MidAmerica's chances of attracting another carrier to replace Pan Am anytime soon are remote, an airline industry analyst said.
That's because of the wave of consolidations in the airline industry, forcing carriers to cut flights and focus schedules on big hub airports such as Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.
Long before the terrorist attacks, the airport already had been handicapped by its relatively inconvenient location and limited options for air travelers, said Bill Oliver, a vice president of the Boyd Group, of Evergreen, Colo.
"I cannot envision a scenario that would bring a carrier in there," Oliver said of MidAmerica.
Pan Am's announcement was the latest setback for the airport, which was built at a cost of $313 million and opened in May 1998. For the next two years after it opened, county officials sought in vain to attract a passenger airline, which made the airport a lightning rod for criticism.
Maher said county leaders will have to focus their efforts on bringing in cargo and charter companies to the airport.
"The immediate future for this airport is going to be cargo, airport-related businesses and charter flights," Maher said. "That's the niche we have to look at for the next five years."
Information provided by the Belleville News-Democrat
David van den Berg an Mike Fitzgerald Article
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