"Lambert bucks the trend on late arrivals"

Wednesday, July 6, 2005

Lambert bucks the trend on late arrivals
By Tim McLaughlin 
The St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch 


Congestion and delays are back at many U.S. airports, exceeding peaks seen
in 2000. But Lambert Field finds itself at the opposite end of the spectrum,
as it works to recapture lost flights. 

Less congestion brought one upside: Between 2000 and May 2005, late-arriving
flights at Lambert declined 51 percent, the largest percentage reduction
among major airports, according to a new report by Kenneth M. Mead,
inspector general of the U.S. Transportation Department. San Francisco
ranked second with a 40 percent decline, followed by Pittsburgh's 36 percent
drop. 

St. Louis passengers, however, can't count themselves immune from airport
traffic jams if they're flying into one of six airports recently flagged by
transportation officials as potential trouble spots for summer travel. 

During the first 15 days of June, five of the six airports had delays on
more than 30 percent of all flights. The airports are Atlanta; Newark, N.J.;
Philadelphia; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Washington-Dulles and New
York-LaGuardia. The average delay ranged from 57 minutes to 71 minutes at
those airports, the report said. 

"While it is still early in the season, system performance to date tends to
validate our concerns," the report said. 

In St. Louis, the decrease in arrival delays is an obvious consequence of
American Airlines' 2003 decision to turn Lambert into a secondary hub, when
it cut more than 200 daily flights that November. 

American's cutbacks also are the chief reason why the number of available
airline seats on scheduled Lambert flights fell 58 percent between July 2000
and this month, the report said. During that time, the number of scheduled
flights dropped 39 percent. 

Since late 2003, Lambert officials say, the airport has added back several
dozen flights, though not all of them are daily. 

Meanwhile, passengers boarding flights in St. Louis now are much more likely
to board a smaller, regional jet than in 2000. Forty-three percent of
Lambert's flights are on regional jets, placing St. Louis seventh among
major U.S. airports. 

What's happening in St. Louis is part of a national trend. Cincinnati is the
extreme case, with 78 percent of its flights on regional jets, the study
said. 

Scheduled flights on regional jets have more than tripled since July 2000,
the Transportation Department study said. Nearly 295,000 regional jet
flights are expected this month nationwide, up from about 92,000 in July
2000. 

But unlike their turbo-prop predecessors, regional jets fly at the same
altitude as the big jets and require the same access to airport runways and
facilities, the report said. And major airports, including Lambert, also
could have even smaller jets in the years to come. 

"In the not-too-distant future, jet-powered, general aviation aircraft -
including microjets - will also be competing for similar airspace and
airport facilities," the report said. 

As they work to erase the red ink on their financial statements, major
airlines rely heavily on regional carriers, such as Bridgeton-based Trans
States Airlines, to carry passengers. Between first quarter 2001 and first
quarter 2005, network carriers accumulated $32.8 billion in net losses.
Three carriers accounted for 80 percent of the combined losses: United
Airlines ($11.5 billion), Delta Air Lines ($7.7 billion) and American ($7.1
billion), the Transportation Department report said. 

Sky-high fuel costs and competition from low-cost carriers, chiefly
Southwest Airlines, have played havoc with the majors. 

The crushing blow is that ticket prices have decreased since 2000. The
average fare on a 1,000-mile flight in May 2000 was $147, excluding taxes
and fees. In May 2005, that fare was $118, a 20 percent drop, according to
the Air Transport Association's data for the eight major airlines.


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