On any given day in Rockford, a businesswoman might leave her office to meet prospective clients in Los Angeles. When she pulls out of the parking lot, she's likely to feel a slight twinge of guilt as she turns right. To get to Greater Rockford Airport, she should turn left. But, instead of going there to catch a connecting flight to Chicago, the business traveler heads to a nearby hotel to catch a bus. As she gets on, she nods at familiar faces, some of the movers and shakers of Rockford, all sitting on a bus to get to O'Hare International Airport.
Most of these people want to support the local airport. Many have caught, and occasionally still do catch, a connecting flight on Masaba Northwest Airlink, the one airline still serving Rockford. However, 360, 000 times a year, Rockford area people take the bus to and from Chicago's O'Hare. Hundreds of thousands more drive to O'Hare. They've found Masaba's connecting flights to Detroit or Minneapolis-St. Paul sometimes take as much as twice as long to reach their final destination and can cost hundreds of dollars more in air fares. There's only so much a business will do to show support for the local airport.
Rockford's airport used to be served by Midway Airlines, Midwest Express, and the favorite, American Eagle. The changing market and United's success in luring Rockford travelers by bus finally convinced American that other connections would be more profitable.
Rockford's airport consultant says
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federal restrictions on flights through O'Hare are the reason many Illinois airports can no longer offer service to Chicago. The upshot, adds Michael Boyd, head of the Colorado-based Boyd Group, is that many smaller airports are struggling to keep airlines and to attract passengers. So the vast majority of downstate airports, including those in Rockford, Springfield and Decatur as well as those in southern Illinois, are marginalized. They can offer few flights and fewer carriers.
But it appears the restrictions may soon be lifted. Congress is considering measures that would phase out limits on flights in and out of O'Hare and some of the nation's other busiest airports.
That's good news for downstate airports because the consequences of the airports' failure to thrive go deeper than mere convenience. Communities depend on the airports to boost economic development. In fact, a coalition of southern Illinois communities has even agreed to pay former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon's Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and officials of Jackson County to study how the region might draw more air service to Midwestern hubs. Southern Illinois would like to cash in on the benefits of having a profitable local airport. The key, as evidenced by the success of Quad City International Airport and Bloomington's Central Illinois Regional Airport, appears to be size. Both of those airports, big enough to provide jet service for a sizable region, will continue to grow, adding more service and more jets.
The likely change in the Federal Aviation Administration regulations would lift restrictions on the number of planes each airline can fly in and out of an airport at the busiest times, a formula called "slots." Besides O'Hare, major airports that would be affected are Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C., as well as John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports in New York.
Under the restriction, if, say, "Airline Xpress" has 10 slots at O'Hare for a given hour, that carrier will try to fly its planes from airports where it's likely to get a full load of paying passengers. If an airport doesn't draw enough paying customers, Airline Xpress might move its slots to another. It's a marketing calculation that might not seem to make sense to the airport officials who are losing plane service.
Consultant Michael Boyd argues the FAA's restricted slots system is outdated and has nothing to do with capacity or safety. In fact, the slot system was created in 1969 as an efficient management tool. Still, "They could do away with those slot controls tomorrow," Boyd contends.
In the past few years, slot controls have led United Express service partner, Great Aviation Ltd., to pull out of Quincy, Decatur and Mt. Vernon.
It's not that Great Lakes/United Express couldn't make money in those cities, but United found other more profitable connections and used the slots for them.
Miffed about the move, U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin waded into the fray, suggesting United Airlines should dump its association with Great Lakes Aviation and find another United Express partner. Durbin also says he wants to end the FAA's limited slots rule.
A member of Durbin's staff says an easing of the rule, if not an immediate end, is inevitable. "It's clear there will be some lifting of the high density rule at O'Hare," says Pat Souders, projects director for Durbin.
And U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater has called for the restrictions to be phased out in Chicago and New York and gone by 2004.
The use of slots leaves many local airports in Illinois struggling for access to the major airports. The airports where United Express ended service hope to attract other airlines, but there is fierce competition.
Quincy still has Trans World Express service to Lambert-St. Louis. Because there's no easy way to drive to St. Louis from Quincy, that service will likely remain.
Decatur Airport still has service to St. Louis, but it no longer has connecting flights to Chicago. After an encouraging year in which Decatur saw the number of passengers increase from 36, 915 in 1998 to 42, 153 in 1999, the loss of United Express will likely mean a lot less traffic in 2000.
Springfield might pick up some of those passengers because United Express added a daily flight at Capital Airport. Springfield could use the traffic. In past years, 100, 000 passengers flew through Capital Airport. In 1999, fewer than 83, 000 passed through that city's terminals. With the end of United Express flights out of Mt. Vernon, the entirety of southern Illinois is now served by four TWExpress 19-passenger turboprops that fly out of the Williamson County Airport, connecting with St. Louis.
Nearby, the Southern Illinois Airport in Jackson County and Simon's Public Policy Institute are getting ready to compile an air service study funded by local communities. The associate director of Simon's institute, Mike Lawrence, says the region of the state south of Mt. Vernon needs improved access to the major airports. "It's difficult to get a flight to St. Louis or Chicago. Improved service between here and the major hubs would help economic development," he says.
Right now, most people in southern Illinois who want to fly somewhere first drive to St. Louis. Ironically, on their way to Lambert they drive right past the most expensive airport in southern Illinois. Federal and state tax dollars in the amount of $313 million have been poured into MidAmerica, which provides joint service with Scott Air Force Base near Belleville. MidAmerica can handle a lot of air traffic, and soon a light rail system will
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Many smaller airports are struggling to keep airlines and to attract passengers. They can offer few flights and fewer carriers.
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connect MidAmerica with St. Louis and beyond. Yet not a single passenger airline serves the airport.
That airport faced a public relations nightmare in 1998, when NBC Nightly News made MidAmerica a subject in its "Fleecing of America" series shortly before the airport officially opened. St. Clair County Chairman John Baricevic contends that despite the broadcast's suggestions the airport might be a waste of taxpayer money, MidAmerica is already a success due to the National Air Guard wing lured from O'Hare. Baricevic says he believes MidAmerica's new runways and improvements shared by Scott Air Force Base might have saved Scott from closure and saved thousands of jobs from being lost when hearings were underway on closing military bases. "If we never get one plane, MidAmerica is a success," Baricevic argues.
A newly created airline with an old name. Pan Am, has indicated interest in flying to MidAmerica, but the new Pan Am is a fledgling airline more worried about making its two existing routes profitable. With Lambert-St. Louis expanding, many experts believe the shiny new airport in St. Clair County will remain empty for quite a while longer.
For some central Illinois airports, though, business is booming. Despite the few slots available at O'Hare, Central Illinois Regional Airport at Bloomington-Normal, the Greater Peoria Regional Airport and, a little farther northwest, the Quad City International Airport are doing solid business.
The Central Illinois Regional Airport is one of the fastest growing airports in the nation. After a record year in 1998, Bloomington followed up with a 14 percent increase in passenger traffic in 1999 when 436, 051 people used that airport. The big draw is the low-fare airline AirTran Airways. That airline first attracted passengers with low-fare trips to Orlando. It's no longer offering that service, but does connect with Atlanta, its hub. Other airlines, TWE, Northwest Airlink, Frontier and American Eagle, have added flights, giving Central Illinois Regional connections to such major hub airports as Chicago, Denver, Detroit and Minneapolis-St.Paul. (A hub airport is one in which airlines have concentrated a large number of flights.) The competition has led to lower air fares. Some of the gain in passenger traffic is from people who used to drive to Chicago or St. Louis to catch a flight.
In fact, Bloomington has changed travel in central Illinois. That community's airport has gained passengers from the Champaign, Decatur, Bloomington, Springfield and Peoria areas, making it a truly regional airport. Central Illinois Regional Airport marketing director Fran Strebing says because Bloomington sits at the crossroads of 1-74, 1-55 and 1-39, it's an easy drive from other central Illinois cities. She adds, "Free parking helps." Flush with success, the Central Illinois Regional Airport is building a new 100, 300-square-foot terminal that is set to open in the summer of 2001.
Despite Bloomington's success in drawing travelers, Willard Airport near Champaign only saw a 5 percent decrease in traffic. The University of Illinois airport blames that on fewer flights, a result of the struggle to keep slots. Marketing director Jon Rector says if Willard is losing any passengers, it's probably to Indianapolis. He says very few of Champaign's passengers have switched to Bloomington.
Peoria only saw a 1 percent drop in traffic last year. Nearly 436, 000 people flew through the Greater Peoria Regional Airport. The airport's director, Fred Traub, says Bloomington has been able to attract pleasure travelers because of its past low-cost direct flights to Florida, but business travelers still look to Peoria. Traub says that's because the Greater Peoria Regional Airport has a good facility and it has jet service to a number of hubs.
Jet service at airports such as Peoria, Bloomington, and Quad City International will likely increase in coming years. Smaller jets, such as the 37-passengerjets American is flying and the 50-passengerjets a number of other airlines use, can serve regional airports well. Consultant Boyd says that will further change airport dynamics in Illinois.
"What this is going to do for these bigger airports is allow them access to more distant hubs and more jet service to existing ones," Boyd says. "But, it's not going to bring jet service to Decatur or Quincy or the smaller local airports. It will make it more difficult for those airports because people will drive to get on a jet rather than get on a turboprop at the local airport." Boyd says in the future that means you might not have passenger service at your local airport, but you'll probably have access to better air service at a nearby regional airport.
Smaller airports face another problem: the perception of unreliable service. Airports have handled a lot of complaints about cancelled, delayed or missed connections with TWExpress. That has not helped the reputation of some of Illinois' smaller airports. A business traveler who gets burned more than once traveling to Springfield only remembers that flying to Springfield is a hassle and will avoid it if possible. The airports have complained to TWE and its partner Trans World Airlines.
TWA has been working hard to improve its own track record. Recently, that carrier took the lead in the nation for on-time flights. It has not so subtly persuaded its regional partner, TWE, to improve its service. And the airports say TWExpress has improved steadily in recent months. But airport observers say it will take some time to build trust again.
Meanwhile, every night at Greater Rockford Airport, a Boeing 747 roars off on its way to Tokyo. It's a cargo shipment headed overseas from United Parcel Service's second largest hub. Airport director James Loomis is waiting for passenger airlines to recognize what he believes: Peotone may someday host a Chicagoland airport, but Chicago's third airport has already been built. It's only 64 miles up 1-90 from O'Hare, just waiting for passenger traffic from the 'burbs.
Lester Graham is a producer/reporter with the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, which is broadcast on public radio stations in Illinois and several other states.
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