The article below from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@xxxxxxxxx /--------- E-mail Sponsored by Fox Searchlight ------------\ GARDEN STATE: NOW PLAYING IN SELECT THEATERS GARDEN STATE stars Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard and Ian Holm. NEWSWEEK's David Ansen says "Writer-Director Zach Braff has a genuine filmmaker's eye and is loaded with talent." Watch the teaser trailer that has all of America buzzing and talk back with Zach Braff on the Garden State Blog at: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/gardenstate/index_nyt.html \----------------------------------------------------------/ Fears of Isolation as US Airways Cuts Flights August 13, 2004 By MICHELINE MAYNARD Known for its splendid setting at the head of Cayuga Lake, for its frequent appearances on "best places to live'' lists and for the Cornell University campus perched on the hill above, Ithaca, N.Y., is also a community with an Achilles' heel: it is becoming harder to fly there. As recently as 1997, five airlines served the city's pristine jewel box of an airport, Tompkins Regional. Now there is just one, US Airways, and it may not be there much longer. On Thursday, the airline delivered some bad news that Ithacans had been bracing for. Come November, the airline will discontinue its four daily flights to Pittsburgh, the US Airways hub where passengers could make connections to most of the country. Nineteen other cities will also lose their Pittsburgh service, US Airways said, as the airline dismantles the hub to concentrate more on point-to-point flying. Ithaca is one of 34 communities, mostly in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states, that are served only by US Airways, an airline that has already been through one bankruptcy since the Sept. 11 attacks and is struggling hard to avoid another. If it fails and is shut down, those 34 airports will be left without scheduled service. Smaller cities across the country have depended for decades on the hub-and-spoke system used by US Airways and other airlines for convenient access to air travel. By funneling passengers through their hubs, the airlines were able to provide more frequent service and connections to more destinations than these small markets could otherwise sustain. "Ithaca really was designed for the hub-and-spoke system," said Robert Nicholas, the manager of the city's airport. But that system is being undermined by high costs, the financial aftereffects of the deep slump in air travel after Sept. 11 and the growing willingness of passengers to drive farther to reach a city served by a low-fare airline. Robert W. Mann Jr., an industry consultant based in Port Washington, N.Y., said he doubted that many communities would be able to find a replacement for US Airways. Only cities that qualify for federal subsidies under programs like Essential Air Service, which pays airlines to fly to out-of-the-way communities, or that are willing to subsidize flights may get another airline, he said. Otherwise, "instead of air-service spokes, they will revert to driving spokes," Mr. Mann said. Service to Ithaca, 57 miles southwest of Syracuse, does not qualify for federal subsidies, and it has been suffering death by a thousand cuts. Tompkins Regional, where carriers like Mohawk, Empire, Allegheny, Piedmont, Commuter and TWA have come and gone over the years, lost US Airways' last rival four years ago, when Continental Airlines left. US Airways stopped flying mainline jets to Ithaca early in 2003, and now offers only its US Airways Express turboprops and regional jets. When the Pittsburgh flights end in November, Ithacans will be able to fly only to Philadelphia or to LaGuardia Airport in New York. US Airways' declining fortunes are a major cause of the cutbacks, but so are local passengers who would rather drive to Syracuse, Rochester or even Buffalo to catch a flight than pay US Airways' relatively high fares. Passenger volume, which peaked in the mid-1990's, has since fallen more than 25 percent. US Airways and the Ithaca airport divided $60,000 in losses on flights to and from Ithaca in 2003 (one-quarter by the airport; the rest by the airline). Even Alfred A. Kahn, a former chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board, often avoids flying from Tompkins Regional. Mr. Kahn was the architect of airline deregulation in the Carter administration, which led the airlines to create the hub-and-spoke networks and start feeder-flight service to scores of cities like Ithaca. At 86, he still cuts a jaunty figure, strolling through Ithaca cane in hand, though he stopped driving after a serious accident two years ago. While he uses the local airport occasionally, he often hires a limousine to take him to Syracuse, where he can fly to Kennedy Airport in New York on JetBlue Airways, the low-fare carrier based in Queens. JetBlue's round-trip fare between Syracuse and J.F.K. is about $200, so even after paying $65 each way for the hourlong limo ride, Mr. Kahn saves money compared with US Airways' $550 round-trip fare between Ithaca and LaGuardia. "The fares are so low and the flights are so pleasant," Mr. Kahn said of JetBlue. Cornell, the biggest employer in the area, encourages but does not require its staff and faculty to seek the lowest fares when traveling on college business, said Richard McDaniel, associate vice president for campus and business services. Flights from Tompkins Regional are still permitted, Mr. McDaniel said, but Cornell is feeling the pinch of the high fares. "We don't have a lot of money to burn," he said. So, to cut costs and to hedge against the possible loss of air service, the university is starting a bus line linking its Ithaca campus with its medical college in New York City. The 20-seat bus, equipped with tables and ports for laptop computers, will start running on Sept. 7; the fare for the ride, just under five hours each way, will be $149 round-trip. Still, some at the university would rather fly. Mark H. Anbinder, a computer specialist at Cornell, has set up alerts on Travelocity.com, the discount travel Web site, that let him know when US Airways has a fare sale, but he sticks to Tompkins Regional with or without the discounts. "I will pay a premium not to have to drive to Syracuse and spend that three hours in the car," he said. Rachel Weiner, a senior at Cornell who grew up in Andover, Mass., prefers the air to the highway when she goes home for a weekend, hopping on a 16-seat plane from Ithaca to LaGuardia and then catching the shuttle flight to Boston. Flying takes as long as driving, Ms. Weiner said - about six hours - but "the drive is so long and taxing." Community leaders have discussed many ideas for increasing passenger traffic, like fare subsidies, marketing campaigns and appeals to airlines to invest in Ithaca. "How do we reinvent ourselves so that they say, 'Hmm, there's something there?' " asked Barbara Blanchard, a Tompkins County legislator and a member of the local Air Service Task Force. The task force, set up in 1997, gained an added sense of urgency when US Airways filed for bankruptcy in 2002 and did not pay fees to the airport for three months. Mr. Nicholas said the airport eventually agreed to accept 10 cents on the dollar for the arrears, a loss that helped knock the airport's operating fund down to about $67,000 from $400,000 in 2001. It is likely to shrink further after the Pittsburgh flights stop. Even so, Tompkins Regional remains a point of community pride. The bright and airy terminal, opened in 1994, was a huge improvement over the tiny old cinderblock structure, whose baggage claim amounted to a garage door and a chain-link fence. The first half-hour is free in the short-term parking lot, and an official greeter scurries up with a baggage cart, also free, to meet travelers who are dropped off at the curb. Between flights last week, the airport's three US Airways counters stood empty; one airline employee sat reading, while two others looked up with smiles as a handful of people strolled in. There was nothing resembling a line at the Hertz and Avis car rental desks, nor any wait at the security checkpoint - heaven for a harried traveler, perhaps, but not for Mr. Nicholas. "I'd rather it was a zoo," he said as he led a tour earlier this month. Travelers encounter no snags in the terminal, but all too many on the tarmac. As US Airways has shed employees, it has repeatedly had problems finding crews for commuter flights to Ithaca and other small cities, resulting in frequent cancellations and delays. That problem, and the shrinking number of destinations offered by US Airways, has prompted even some of the airport's biggest fans to turn elsewhere. Jean McPheeters, president of the Ithaca Chamber of Commerce, travels frequently to Duluth, Minn., a city US Airways does not serve. She generally drives to Syracuse to catch a Northwest Airlines flight. Ms. McPheeters said she was confident that Ithaca could find a replacement for US Airways if necessary. With its scenic beauty and a stable economy dominated by Cornell, Ms. McPheeters said, Ithaca could make a persuasive pitch. Her own preference, she said, would be a low-fare carrier like JetBlue or Independence Air, rather than one of the traditional airlines. But Mr. McDaniel said that community leaders knew they faced competition. Some cities that are losing US Airways service have already formed a lobbying group, the Coalition for Disadvantaged Airports. "We have a strong economic base in our little region," Mr. McDaniel said. "But other people have wonderful stories to tell, too, so we had better get moving." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/13/business/13air.html?ex=1093406323&ei=1&en=41aa2ee7726a6458 --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! 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