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Remember the day when
some flights offered breakfast or lunch? At the least, a bag of pretzels
and can of soda was standard fare on all flights. These days, even pretzels
are a rarity. No-frills flights reflect the financial pressure that
passenger airlines face everywhere. As Mark Hanna, executive director of the Abraham
Lincoln Capital Airport, explains, “We are in a new era of airline
service. 9/11 changed so much — bankruptcy and other side effects of
the disaster. Regional airlines have been hurt.”
Talk to anyone who has flown in and out of
Springfield, and almost immediately you will hear complaints about reduced
service, delays, and cancellations. Many have just given up and instead
drive to St. Louis to avoid missing connecting flights. Since 1994 my work has necessitated extensive travel,
and I have witnessed the erosion of service from fast and affordable to
what one man seated next to me on a recent flight described as a
“hassle.”
Dick Austin, a member of the Springfield Airport
Authority board of commissioners, concedes that delays are commonplace,
something he blames on airlines’ “stretching the use of their
planes” as they deal with the pressure of high fuel, equipment, and
maintenance costs. But Springfield’s and the region’s
problems go back well before 9/11 jolted the business. About 25 years ago, Austin says, Springfield was told
by the airlines to work out plans with Decatur, Bloomington, Champaign, and
Peoria to create a regional hub in Lincoln to serve central Illinois. “Springfield scoffed at the idea — we had
Ozark at the time, and we were the capital city,” he says. “People thought we would be able to maintain
service by strictly relying on passengers, but that has not happened. The
airlines have gobbled up the smaller carriers. Today, only about six major
airlines really exist. To bring in an airline, we must pay — or have
a company underwrite the cost. That is what Peoria and Bloomington did;
Caterpillar in Peoria and State Farm in Bloomington underwrite the airline
service by guaranteeing a certain number of seats daily.”
Without that underwriting, Springfield must rely on
passengers, and so the vicious circle begins — delays and
cancellations cause people to quit filling the seats, and when the seats
aren’t filled prices increase and airlines leave.
The price of tickets may not cover total costs. For
example, the Springfield airport must pay a terminal fee of $18,000 per
month at Midway, a gate fee of $2,700 per landing, plus landing and
refueling fees. “We once had 81,000 people fly out of
Springfield annually, meaning, we met the load requirement for United and
American to provide service,” says Austin, “but it costs as
much as $3 million to get an airline.”
The figure of 81,000 passengers fell to around 70,000
and dipped a bit lower after American dropped service. The airlines look at
demand. With demand come more offerings — in both the number of
flights and the variety of airlines.
Unlike neighboring
cities, where top businesses guarantee filled seats, Springfield’s
top employer — state government — competes with the commercial
airlines. That’s led to heated debates here. Some say that if the state would guarantee a daily
number of seats, Springfield airline service would be more competitive;
some, though, insist that it wouldn’t matter. According to the auditor general’s report of
January 2007, the state fleet cost $19.97 million to maintain during fiscal
years 2003-2006. State planes (shuttles that hold eight passengers) fly
four times a day (two flights to and from Chicago Midway). The Illinois
Department of Transportation charges an agency $59.86 for a one-way flight
($119.72 round trip), even though the true cost to the Department of
Transportation is $270 one way ($540 round trip).
The state’s procurement agency, Central
Management Services, contracted with Big Sky Airlines for $99 one-way
flights — with a walk-up provision, meaning prior booking is not
required. Just show up for a flight (depending, of course, on seat
availability). Some argue that the state could (or should) put its
money into the commercial airlines and continue to offer agencies the lower
rate of $60 one way, which would still bring the state’s cost in
under the current cost and would serve as a guarantee that more seats would
be filled on the commercial flights. This would increase usage and
therefore attract more service to the city. Those who line up on this side
of the argument say that it is part of the state’s obligation to help
increase airline service in and out of the capital city, which would in the
long run bolster the state’s revenue.
Others argue that the state will pay one way or the
other — either by maintaining its own fleet or by paying commercial
airline costs — and they say that a cheaper cost to an agency helps
keep state costs down. Big Sky, still flying out of Springfield, has 19-seat
planes. The airline once offered $79 tickets but could not get enough
passengers to support that price. The ticket price was increased to $89,
then to $99, and finally to $109, with the walk-up flights still priced at
$99. In a recent promotion, Big Sky recently offered a $39 one-way flight
to and from Chicago Midway. Big Sky wants to be successful in Springfield. The
airline has opened a maintenance center here (meaning that the airplanes
come here to be serviced), and it’s considering a
Springfield-Cincinnati flight, which would connect to a Delta Air Lines
hub. State agencies have access to the state fleet, but,
because travel budgets are limited, many do not use it. If an agency needs
to send its workers to frequent meetings in Chicago, spending $120 for each
round-trip state-plane flight when agencies would rather spend their travel
allowances to send their people to national and international symposiums
just isn’t an option. The question remains: If the state guaranteed seats
on commercial airlines, would we have better service and competitive
airlines here? We may never know, because people on both sides of the issue
don’t really seem willing to give up their views. Hanna, the airport executive, says, “For the
function of the state, there is a need to have a fleet, maybe for the top
executives or for emergencies or for last-minute meetings, but the
day-to-day worker could take advantage of the walk-up flights offered at
the airport.”
In March, RegionsAir was
ordered to suspend service by the Federal Aviation Administration,
temporarily cutting Springfield’s link to Lambert St. Louis
International Airport. Inadequate pilot training was the reason cited. “The St. Louis flights were profitable, but
none of us had a choice when the FAA shut them down,” Austin says,
“and, we certainly didn’t want unsafe conditions for
travelers.”
It took until this month to entice another carrier to
step in. By the end of this month Great Lakes Airllines will have marked
its return to the Springfield market by offering service to St. Louis. Great Lakes used to serve Springfield, flying
into Meigs Field in Chicago with 20,000 passengers a year. But Mayor
Richard M. Daley ordered the lakefront airport bulldozed, and then Great
Lakes was squeezed out of O’Hare. Springfield-Chicago Midway service was then provided
by ATA Airlines, which offered a $107 one-way ticket. ATA went bankrupt in
2004, and Springfield lost yet another carrier. That seems to be the way of the airlines. Listening
to the news, you hear constant reports of airlines’ losing money,
declaring bankruptcy, and reneging on their workers’ promised
pensions. Hanna’s explanation — that 9/11’s ramifications
are still being felt — seems to be true. The biggest news for Springfield came with the launch
of direct service from here to Washington Dulles, at the end of April, the
result of a collaboration by several key players, including U.S. Sen. Dick
Durbin, who helped secure a $390,000 grant from the U.S. Department of
Transportation’s Small Community Air Service Development Program. The
Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce also made a substantial financial
commitment. “Air service is a critical component of a
healthy economic climate,” says chamber president Gary Plummer.
“Having the only direct air service to Washington, D.C., in central
Illinois certainly gives our airport an important niche to the
market.”
I have been traveling to Washington four times a year
since 1994, so I was eager to try out the new flight and curious as to
whether I would save time or money. I saved on both. The ticket cost $250,
cheaper than any I have ever had on American or United. From the moment we
left the gate in Springfield to the time I walked into my hotel room on
Capitol Hill, the trip was, amazingly, only three hours — and that
was even with a delay in baggage claim, a wait for the shuttle-bus driver,
and a 45-minute ride from Dulles into the city. Some have said that the flight would be more
convenient if it landed at Washington’s Reagan National Airport,
closer to the city, instead of Dulles, which is so far out. The ride really
was more pleasant than I expected, and, though not as convenient as flying
into Reagan National, it was still faster than flying by way of St. Louis
or O’Hare to Washington. The once-a-day flight out to Washington leaves at 5:
15 p.m. Some say that the flight should be earlier in the day. Hanna and
Austin both say that the airport board analyzed options, found that there
were many connecting flight possibilities once one arrived around 8 p.m. in
Dulles, and determined that someone with a morning meeting in Washington
could fly in one night and return the next. (A daily return flight leaves
Dulles at 4:45 p.m. and arrives here at 6:30 p.m.). On my flight, 26 of the plane’s 50 seats were
filled. One couple was excited about being able to fly straight to D.C. to
visit their grandchildren; others were happy that the flight was so smooth
and on time. On the return flight, a few days later, 38 of the 50
seats were filled. The man next to me kept exclaiming that it was amazing
that we were actually getting this flight into Springfield. He had just
made a connecting flight from Orlando.
Asked what needs to
happen for air service to the capital city to improve, and airport director
Hanna refers to the complexity of the problem. “There is no silver bullet,” he says. At the same time, however, the new service to
Washington, D.C., illustrates the basic requirements to maintain and
improve service: • Springfieldians need to patronize the airport;
otherwise, we risk seeing the number of flights and carriers continue to
decline. Less air service means fewer tourists visiting us and fewer
businesses willing to locate or expand here.
• Local residents, who are convinced that air
travel from Springfield is too costly, need to take another look. After
factoring in the price of gasoline, travel time, and parking (parking at
our airport is free), I’m not convinced that flying out of other
airports is cheaper. • More Springfield businesses, either separately
or jointly, need to emulate civic-minded companies in other Illinois
communities and agree to underwrite service. Whether it’s feasible in
the long run, there should at least be an ongoing conversation — and
many need to collaborate on possibilities.
Cinda Klickna, a regular contributor to Illinois Times, travels
extensively as an officer of the Illinois Education Association.
This article appears in May 24-30, 2007.
