In mid-July, American Airlines announced plans to cut flights
into Lambert Airport in half as well as consolidate its remaining
flights into one concourse–part of a project beginning in November
to reduce service to St. Louis.

The announcement, reported by Ken Leiser and others in the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch, comes while Lambert itself is planning to add
another runway, a project that airport officials say will continue
as planned and be completed by 2005 or early 2006.

Officials did say Lambert may have to temporarily close portions
of its main terminal when American reduces its flight schedule from
417 departures per day to 207.

The cuts, which also include canceling nonstop service to 27
cities and reducing by 75 percent flights on larger jets, are the
latest effect of American’s continuing financial problems. In early
2003, then CEO Donald Carty resigned from the Fort Worth,
Texas-based airline after it almost fell into bankruptcy, only to
resign in March amidst a dispute over concessions with the AA labor
unions.

Jennifer Hatton reported in the Suburban Journals that AMR
Corp., American’s parent company, revealed in July a quarterly net
loss of $75 million. In addition to cutting flights from Lambert,
American will also close its reservation office, which will result
in the loss of more than 2,000 jobs.

American currently pays about 60 percent of the roughly $35
million a month in rent Lambert receives from the airlines it
hosts. American also assumed a $650,000 a month payment when it
purchased 57 Trans World Airlines gates almost a decade ago.

“I am going to have to sit down with American Airlines,” the
Post quoted Lambert Field Director Leonard L. Griggs as saying,
“because they have debt obligations to us to pay rent on every one
of those gates between now and 2005.”

Alan Stolzer, associate dean for aviation at the Parks School of
Engineering and Aviation, said, “(American’s decision) will have a
dramatic effect on the finances of Lambert — or any other airport
that suffers this kind of pull out by an airline.”

Stolzer said that Lambert’s passengers will also feel the brunt
of the lost flights. “Initially passengers will experience a
significant reduction in the service they’ve had. They’ll feel the
immediate impact.”

The bottom line seems to be that American is cutting flights to
competitor’s cities. Where Kansas and St. Louis was a major hub for
TWA, American seems prepared to leave Lambert to Southwest — a
low-cost airline.

Stolzer said city management officials will most likely try to
sell the vacant gates to other airlines, but most have hinted that
they did not see St. Louis now as a worthwhile hub.

“Like everything else, it’s a free market,” Stolzer said. “If
other airlines feel they can make money, they’re going to come in.
If they don’t feel they can make money, then they’ll make the
decision not to expand here.”