Big Sky looking for more passengers GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) =97 Ticket sales for Big Sky Airlines continue to be=20 about a third of what the company wants. "We're still seeing good response= =20 to our schedules. However, we're still not meeting budget expectations=20 yet," Executive Vice President Craig Denney said Tuesday. Some 208=20 passengers boarded Big Sky flights in Gillette in January. Ideally, Denney= =20 said, the airline would like to see that number be about 600 per month. Low= =20 ticket sales, high fuel prices, recent terrorist alerts, the ongoing crises= =20 in Iraq and North Korea and a plodding economy all have taken a toll on the= =20 airline, as well as the entire industry, Denney said. "Air traffic is down= =20 everywhere," he said. Big Sky began flying in and out of Wyoming on routes= =20 between Gillette, Casper and Billings in late October. Earlier last year,=20 Campbell and Natrona counties each pledged $250,000 to match a $500,000=20 federal grant to help fund the project, which included buying a 19-seat=20 Metroliner airplane. Denney had said in November he hoped travel during the= =20 holiday season would jump-start sales for the airline once flyers became=20 familiar with the service. But ticket sales for Big Sky flights between=20 Gillette and Billings plummeted by 41% between December and January as the= =20 travel industry headed into its traditional slow season. On Jan. 14, the=20 airline was compelled to start running only two scheduled flights a day on= =20 its Wyoming routes instead of three. "We remain optimistic. However, if=20 people take the attitude of not using it for a number of months, that=20 service could be gone," Denney said. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.trotters.net TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************