Hargrove Resigns As Head Of MidAmerica Airport
Family Needs Cited
New Director Sought
MidAmerica Airport, Illinois (March 13, 2002) -- Floyd "Rick" Hargrove said today will be his last as the director of MidAmerica St. Louis Airport.
He is leaving his position to care for his daughter, who he said is "extremely ill."
St. Clair County Board Chairman John Baricevic praised the job Hargrove did in running the airport. Thanks to Hargrove, Baricevic said, the airport is well-positioned for future success.
"Rick Hargrove has done everything we asked him to do -- he has done an excellent job operating the airport," he said. "He has laid the foundation for a well-run airport."
Hargrove was named director in 1997.
While a search is conducted for Hargrove's replacement, the remaining airport staffers will assume his responsibilities, Baricevic said.
"Everybody will pick up his responsibilities, hopefully for a short period of time," Baricevic said.
A decision on whether St. Clair County itself or an outside firm will conduct the search for Hargrove's replacement has not been made, Baricevic said. He also did not have a specific time frame for when he wants the search completed.
Ideally, Hargrove's replacement will have a combination of airport operating experience, marketing experience and military experience, Baricevic said.
Bill Oliver, an airline industry analyst with The Boyd Group in the Denver area, said someone who has experience in building traffic at an airport would make a good candidate to replace Hargrove. Oliver said Hargrove faced a "nearly insurmountable challenge" in trying to market the airport to airlines, and his replacement will face the same challenge.
In 2000, Hargrove and St. Clair County officials were able to attract Portsmouth, N.H.-based Pan American Airways to MidAmerica. The airline offered service to airports near Orlando and Chicago, but in December stopped operating in this area. This week, scheduled flights returned to MidAmerica when a Missouri charter company started offering four flights a week to Chicago's Midway Airport.
Steve Lott, business editor at the newsletter Aviation Daily, said because of the weak economy and current state of the air travel industry, Hargrove's replacement will initially face an uphill battle in attracting traffic at the airport.
"In the near term, it's going to be a real tough struggle," he said. "The new director pretty much has nowhere to go but up."
Still, Lott, noting the Federal Aviation Administration's forecast of an aviation recovery in 2003 and the need for more airport capacity across the country, said MidAmerica's long-term future is good.
Information provided by the Belleville News-Democrat
David van den Berg Article © the Belleville News-Democrat
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