"MidAmerica Airport has longing for business travelers"

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

MidAmerica Airport has longing for business travelers
By Michael Shaw
The St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch 
 

MidAmerica Airport near Mascoutah was a workable alternative for vacationers
wanting a Florida getaway until last month, when TransMeridian Airlines went
bankrupt and ended service to Orlando, Fla.

The airport's leisure travel model was briefly threatened, until the
announcement on Wednesday that its remaining airline, Allegiant Airlines of
Las Vegas, will pick up service to Orlando starting in February. The airline
already flies to Las Vegas from MidAmerica four times a week.

With the top leisure destinations for St. Louis travelers once again sewn
up, airport administrators are free to consider how to accomplish the other
model for passenger service: becoming an option for business travelers.

"The No. 1 business destination - and we're putting all our efforts into
this - is Washington, D.C.," MidAmerica's executive director, Tim Cantwell,
said on Wednesday, shortly after a news conference about the resumption of
service to Florida. "It's No. 1 on our passenger study."

That includes travelers going to the two airports at the nation's capital
and Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

The difficulty for MidAmerica is that business travelers typically are less
flexible about planning a trip than those wanting a weekend with Mickey
Mouse or in front of slot machines in Las Vegas, Cantwell said.

"Our preliminary results show a 50- to 70-seater doing multiple runs back
and forth," he said of the possible planes that would work in a business
model, according a study commissioned on how to attract airlines that serve
business travelers.

The target is an employee of the federal government whose plane tickets
would come through government buyers that search for cheap deals with
airlines.

Despite his optimism, Cantwell cautioned that business flights may be slow
to develop. "In a greenfield airport, you don't just plant 700 flights a
day," he said. "You've got to build up on it."

Airport officials are meeting with airlines that could fit MidAmerica's
business traveler model. The choice is unlikely to be Allegiant, which seems
committed to MidAmerica but is based on leisure travel, said spokeswoman
Tyri Squyres.

Allegiant's Orlando flights will initially be on Wednesdays and Saturdays,
beginning on Feb. 1.

People who reserve tickets before Nov. 5 will be eligible for a one-way fare
of $59. The regular one-way fare for the trip probably will range from $89
to $209, according to the company.


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