War trims even more flights from airlines' rosters By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY If you're wondering why you no longer have a choice of two Continental=20 Airlines flights daily from Newark, N.J., to Paris, look no further than=20 Tuesday's front page. Since the war in Iraq started, Continental has cut=20 its Newark-Paris service to once a day. Ditto for Newark to London Gatwick.= =20 The flight cuts began last month and continue =97 and they're not all due to= =20 the war. On Monday, Continental announced it was suspending Newark-Hong=20 Kong flights for all of May due to reduced demand because of travelers'=20 concerns about Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. American said it= =20 was cutting May domestic flights 2% below its plan and international=20 schedules 13% from what had been planned. Airlines have been shrinking=20 their schedules since the Sept. 11 attacks, and the new rounds promise to=20 make life a little tougher for frequent business travelers accustomed to=20 grabbing the next flight out. With airlines already filling close to 70% of= =20 their seats, fewer flights could also make the ones still running a little= =20 more crowded. United pared its schedule by 8%. US Airways nipped 4% of its flying.=20 Continental announced temporary reductions last month on overseas routes=20 because of the war, then followed up with a 2% cut in summer capacity as=20 well. "Because of the war in Iraq, we have adjusted our operation in a way= =20 that limits the impact to our customers," says Ben Baldanza, a US Airways'= =20 senior vice president. "The schedule changes have been made to off-peak=20 travel days that have traditionally lower demand." Airlines have reduced=20 their flight schedules as they have in the past by spreading the pain when= =20 they can. For the most part, airlines aren't eliminating any of the cities= =20 they serve. They are simply offering fewer frequencies. But not always: US= =20 Airways Express stopped serving Kalamazoo, Mich., and Madison, Wis., as of= =20 Saturday. Operations close in Baton Rouge on May 5. Kalamazoo/Battle Creek= =20 International Airport will lose four daily round trips to Pittsburgh from=20 US Airways, but it still has five other airlines. "We never want to see a=20 carrier go," says Stephanie Czuhajewski, the airport's marketing director.= =20 "Nationwide, the airlines are suffering. It's not a reflection on the=20 southwest Michigan market as the reason for them pulling out." The cuts affect: High-frequency routes. For the first time in memory, Delta and US Airways=20 have cut frequencies on the Boston-New York LaGuardia-Washington Reagan=20 National shuttle so that service is now less than hourly. US Airways suspended three of its hourly departures between New York and=20 Washington =97 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. =97 leaving 12 daily departures= from=20 each city. Delta cut four round trips. US Airways cut its Boston-New York=20 schedule by suspending the 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. departures. US Airways spokesman David Castelveter acknowledges the shuttle's main=20 selling point is hourly service, but he says the cuts are considered only=20 temporary because of depressed demand due to the war. Other high-frequency routes also have been affected. United and Delta have= =20 reduced frequencies on the busy run between Chicago O'Hare and=20 Minneapolis/St. Paul. For United alone, that's 13 round trips a day now,=20 compared with 17 round trips before. Small communities. The cuts hit harder in small communities that already=20 had limited service. Northwest Airlines, for instance, cut single daily=20 flights from Minneapolis to Aberdeen, S.D., and Billings, Mont.; Detroit to= =20 Fort Wayne, Ind.; and two daily round trips from Detroit to Peoria,=20 Ill. Airport officials may hate to lose flights, but the cutbacks are=20 dictated by market forces, says Bruce Putnam, aviation director at Billings= =20 Logan International Airport in Billings, Mont. Central and South America.=20 Even though travelers' war fears have been centered on trans-Pacific and=20 trans-Atlantic routes, travel to the southern hemisphere is suffering as=20 well. American Airlines' cutbacks include frequencies from Miami to Belize= =20 City, Guatemala City and Panama City. American has reduced flights from New York JFK to St. Thomas from four days= =20 a week to weekends only, spokeswoman Andrea Rader says. Likewise, JFK to=20 St. Martin was also four days a week and will now operate on "selected=20 days." New flights. Some new flights that had been announced will not get=20 off the ground until the war ends or business conditions improve. Last=20 month, American announced it would delay launch of a Los Angeles-to-Tokyo=20 flight for two months. On Monday, American pushed back the start even=20 further, to spring of next year. It is also postponing an additional weekly= =20 flight on its Dallas/Fort Worth-Tokyo route. Northwest has indefinitely shelved a new route linking Memphis and Mexico=20 City. It has also postponed plans to offer a non-stop daily flight between= =20 Minneapolis/St. Paul and Helena, Mont. The war-related cuts come atop the=20 deep cuts that airlines have already made after the terrorist attacks and=20 falloff in business traffic. US Airways says it has reduced capacity by 28%= =20 since September 2001. Continental said the reductions announced last month= =20 will further cut its workforce by 1,200 jobs. Extending the cuts into the=20 summer schedule was expected to add more job losses. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx 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.carstt.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************