Study: Smaller airports suffer most in wake of 9/11 TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) =97 Airline cutbacks since Sept. 11, 2001, have=20 hurt airports in smaller communities more than their big-city counterparts,= =20 a new study says. Large airports have experienced double-digit declines in= =20 the number of flights and seat capacity, according to Reconnecting America,= =20 a group that promotes an integrated nationwide system of bus, rail and air= =20 transportation. But non-hub airports in such as Pellston Regional and=20 Traverse City's Cherry Capital have been hit even harder, the=20 Washington-based organization said. Twenty-one U.S. airports, including=20 Escanaba's, lost all scheduled airline service after 9-11, according to=20 Reconnecting America. Pellston Regional, which serves communities including= =20 Petoskey, Cheboygan and Mackinaw City, was among the 10 non-hub airports=20 with the greatest loss of service nationwide, the study said. Service there= =20 went from 55 flights a week as of Oct. 1, 2001, to 21 as of Sept. 30, 2002,= =20 a drop of 61.8 percent. Virtually all of that decline stemmed from Northwest Airlines' elimination= =20 of three daily flights from Pellston to Escanaba and once-daily flights to= =20 Minneapolis =97 leaving only service to Detroit, said Allison August,=20 Northwest's station manager at Pellston. Despite the cutbacks, Pellston has recorded a 6 percent increase in=20 arrivals and departures so far this year, said Jim Kan, chairman of the=20 Petoskey Regional Chamber of Commerce's air service task force. Pellston=20 and Flint were the only Michigan airports reporting year-to-year gains, Kan= =20 told the Traverse City Record-Eagle for a story Sunday. At Cherry Capital,= =20 which is about to begin building a much larger terminal, weekly flights=20 dropped 20.8 percent, from 149 to 118, the study said. But planes using the= =20 airport carried just 10.4 percent fewer passengers because they had fewer=20 empty seats, the study found. The decline in air service and most major airlines' financial miseries=20 should prompt an examination of how to better organize the nation's=20 transportation system, according to Hank Dittmar, co-chairman of=20 Reconnecting America. The hub-and-spoke system adopted by national carriers= =20 after deregulation in the 1980s brought cheaper fares, but it is now being= =20 dismantled, he said. Dittmar's organization advocates turning airports into what he calls=20 "travelports" =97 hubs for rail and bus service as well as airlines and car= =20 rental agencies. Some air trips of less than 400 miles can take longer than= =20 going by car, bus, or train because of increased security checks, reduced=20 flight schedules and longer layovers between connections, Dittmar said. By= =20 linking the various means of travel, each takes on the parts they can do=20 most efficiently or for the least cost, he said. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (TnT News) http://www.tntmirror.com/ (TnT News) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************