Tough flying for regional airports

It was a roller coaster June for Harrisburg International Airport.

US Airways Group Inc. announced it was cutting the last two daily flights to Pittsburgh, and American Airlines said it was pulling out of the state capital - ending service to Chicago and Dallas-Fort Worth because of soaring fuel costs.

But then Harrisburg got some good news: Continental Airlines Inc. added four daily flights to Newark, N.J., a hub for Continental and gateway to international travel. And low-fare carrier AirTran Holdings Inc. said it would start flying out of Harrisburg once a day to Orlando.

"It's been a mixed bag, but overall we are excited," said Timothy J. Edwards, Harrisburg airport's executive director. "We had some disappointing news, but we are very enthusiastic about the new service."

It is a story familiar to small and regional airports across the country. As airlines drop flights and remove planes from service to reduce soaring jet-fuel bills, passengers using regional airports are getting hit with fewer flight choices, more crowded planes, and higher fares.

Regional airports that no longer have commercial flights include Lancaster and Reading in Pennsylvania; New Castle Airport in Delaware, and Trenton-Mercer Airport in New Jersey.

As airlines have slashed routes and flights this fall, 97 communities have lost, or will lose, all scheduled airline service by the end of the year, according to the Air Transport Association, an industry trade group.

Small and regional airports often suffer disproportionate losses because they have been served by 50-seat regional jets or even smaller planes, and the aircraft do not carry enough passengers to pay for the fuel on many routes with oil at more than $100 a barrel.

"For a decade or more, regional airports have lost passengers to larger airports that offer lower fares," said Bob Hazel, aviation expert at Oliver Wyman consulting in Reston, Va.

"What is new for regional airports is that aircraft commonly used to serve smaller markets, the 50-seat jet, is increasingly uneconomic and is therefore being cut on domestic flights about twice as often as other types of aircraft," he said.

Overall, airports will lose 9.3 percent of their scheduled service this year, said David Castelveter, spokesman for the Airport Transport group.

Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown expects passenger traffic to be down in the "high single digits" - 8 percent or 9 percent - this year, said airport executive director George Doughty. "It's all related to seats available and what the airlines are going to charge for those seats," he said. In recent years, Allentown lost air service to Pittsburgh and Boston.

In July, Allegiant Air L.L.C. announced it would eliminate flights from Allentown to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., because of high fuel prices. The carrier still flies to Orlando and St. Petersburg.

Delta Air Lines Inc. will end flights to Cincinnati from Allentown next month, but will add a flight to Atlanta. United Airlines went from four to five daily departures to Chicago this month, and two other carriers plan to start flying bigger planes from Allentown to Cleveland and Charlotte, N.C.

This week, the airport announced that discount carrier Direct Air L.L.C. will start flying from Allentown in November to Punta Gorda-Fort Myers, Fla. and next spring to Myrtle Beach, S.C.

"The bottom line: We're feeling pretty good considering what's going on in the industry," Doughty said. "If Philadelphia loses 100 flights a day, you might not even notice it. If we lose three, four or five flights a day, it's significant."

Small airports have been trying to attract new carriers, but airlines are reluctant with soaring fuel prices.

In May, Delta left Atlantic City International Airport after six years because the 40-seat regional jet it flew to Atlanta was not profitable.

"They'd have to sell the seats two times or more and still would only break even," said the airport's marketing director, Sharon Gordon. "They didn't have the aircraft to switch out. They used to fly three times a day to Atlanta, but as costs started to rise, they pulled it down to one flight, and then pulled that in May."

Atlantic City now has one airline, Spirit Airlines Inc., a low-fare carrier that flies to several Florida cities, and on to the Caribbean, Latin America and Mexico.

Spirit began a direct flight to Las Vegas from Atlantic City in May 2007, but canceled it in January, citing the high cost of fuel. "It was an extremely successful flight," Gordon said. Spirit wanted to "take that same aircraft and make multiple round-trips in shorter hauls." Last year, Spirit discontinued a nonstop flight to Detroit from Atlantic City

On Sept. 1, Delta left University Park Airport in State College, Pa., where it had flights to Atlanta and Cincinnati. Airport director Charles Welch said he now worried about the future.

"This is the first time in our 55-year history where an airline left," Welch said, noting that service on other airlines serving State College - Northwest Airlines Corp., United and US Airways - remains intact.

"We are fortunate because the university grows, the town grows. We never had to go out and solicit," Welch said. "The airlines wanted to come here. We never felt on pins and needles, until just the last month."

Nearly 100 small airports have lost or are losing all airline flights.

Trenton-Mercer Airport has not had commercial service since February, when Boston Maine Airways Corp., which had a flight to Bedford, Mass., ceased operations. In January, Big Sky Airlines, a Delta affiliate, ended service to Boston, citing financial reasons.

Julie Willmot, Mercer County communications director, said corporate customers were the "backbone" of the county-owned airport in Ewing, N.J. Businesses lease hangars for their corporate jets, including Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer Inc., Unisys Corp. and Amerada Hess. In 2007, commercial flights accounted for only 4.8 percent of the 85,965 takeoffs and landings at the airport.

In Delaware, New Castle Airport near Wilmington has had a checkered history of commercial flights. The airport thrives on its corporate-aviation business, leasing hangar space to private aircraft and corporations, said director of airports Stephen D. Williams. "Air service for us is icing on the cake. We are not going to die if we don't have commercial service."

After Delta stopped flights to Wilmington from Atlanta in September 2007, Skybus Airlines Inc. began service in March 2008 to Columbus, Ohio, and Greensboro, N.C. Less than a month later, Skybus went out of business.

Lancaster Airport lost air service last September when Mesa Air Group Inc., which had federal subsidies to operate three daily flights to Pittsburgh, discontinued service.

"This is the longest stretch without commercial service in over 50 years," said airport director David Eberly. "We are fortunate because we have a lot of other things going on."

Lancaster's private aviation and corporate business generates $1.5 million in annual revenue. The airport has business charter flights and 180 private and corporate aircraft based there.

"We have well over 100,000 takeoffs and landings a year," Eberly said. "We have been talking to airlines about service from Lancaster. There is some interest, but the airlines are very hesitant to look at new markets, especially new markets in small cities like ours."