Willard Airport: American Cutting 2 Chicago Flights

By Paul Wood, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

Jul. 2–SAVOY Even with American Eagle cutting two flights a day to Chicago, the airline can still fly as many people in and out of Willard Airport by increasing occupancy on its remaining flights, the airport’s interim manager said.

Steve Wanzek said American has apparently eliminated the noon flight to Chicago, effective in August, and that he had no information about the other flight cut but was told it would happen in November.

“It’s a little too early to tell about the impact,” Wanzek said Monday. “You’ll probably see the same 9,000 people on seven planes.” With the recent addition of a Champaign-Chicago flight, American Eagle has been offering eight flights a day to Chicago’s O’Hare and one to Dallas-Fort Worth. American said the Dallas flights won’t be affected.

The local cuts seem less harsh when compared with American’s other cost-saving measures. Those include closing operations at three American Airlines cities and five American Eagle cities.

American said in a press release that in Chicago, American Eagle will cut 34 departures. In St. Louis, American Eagle and AmericanConnection will eliminate 35 departures.

The company said the cuts are an effort to “create a more sustainable supply-and-demand balance in today’s high fuel-cost environment.” Andrea Huguely, a spokeswoman for American Airlines, said cuts were being made across the nation “on routes that were not as full.” She noted that the route from Champaign to Dallas is “doing very well.” Another carrier at Willard said flights are safe for now.

“At this time, there are no plans to reduce service” to Champaign on Northwest Airlines, said Vin Parker, a spokesman for Mesaba Airlines.

Mesaba is a wholly owned subsidiary of Minnesota-based Northwest Airlines, which is looking to merge with Delta. It has two flights a day to Detroit.

Parker said no domestic stations are being closed. He said any future cuts would be “directly related to soaring fuel costs.” According to a press release, Northwest will reduce its overall capacity in the fourth quarter of 2008 by about 9 percent from the same period in 2007. Some reductions were announced in April.

Wanzek said any reductions at Willard may be opportunities for other airlines.

“Nobody likes to see service reduced, even if it’s mainly on the surface,” he said. “It’s not the death of the airport by any means; American is here for the long run. We have a nice relationship with Flightstar to maintain their aircraft.”

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AMR,