From the round table: City must aim higher than Memphis as air travel destination

I know many people have worked very hard to restore regularly scheduled passenger airline service to Columbia Regional Airport, and they deserve our support. Mesaba Airlines brought back a handful of passenger flights to our airport just a few days ago, thanks to a $2 million federal subsidy.

But to Memphis?

Forget it!

Sorry, but I can’t get very excited about this latest chapter in the Columbia area’s protracted, obstacle-ridden journey to secure reliable commercial passenger airline service to the outside world.

I predict this latest in a series of government-subsidized airline service projects will be a waste of money and will not succeed. Not just because it will be caught up in the continuing turmoil overwhelming the flying of airplanes in general, but because routing passengers in and out of Columbia via Memphis is simply a poor choice of cities that makes absolutely no sense to me.

What ever happened to establishing passenger air service via ORD-that’s the code for Chicago O’Hare International Airport-the Holy Grail of national and international flights? Only recently there was optimistic talk of securing financial guarantees from area entities, a glimmer of hope brought on by news that discussions were in progress with a carrier that had a cherished “slot” at the huge facility in Chicago’s western suburbs. One airline was interested because area entities were willing to put up the cash while guaranteeing a level of daily boarding, presumably ensuring a profitable route.

My own research indicates that American-Eagle operates four daily round-trip flights between the Springfield-Branson National Airport and O’Hare International Airport near Chicago. Jets leave the Springfield-Branson National Airport daily at 6:35 a.m., 8:10 a.m., 5.00 p.m., and 8:10 p.m. Passengers can return to Springfield at 11:30 a.m., 3:05 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 8:10 p.m.

Then I looked at a map and drew a straight line between Springfield and Chicago. The airline distance is 438 miles. Columbia Regional Airport is some 325 miles southwest of Chicago and is very close to the flight path to Springfield. One wonders why American-Eagle Flights 4042, 3932, 3941, 4265, 4228, 4393, 3940 and 3937 can’t set down for a few minutes at Columbia Regional Airport thus strengthening the economic viability of those eight daily flights.

While it would be a matter of civic pride for Springfield to lose its daily non-stop flights to Chicago as that distinction is passed to Columbia, the darkening economic realities of airline service in general may hasten pairing Springfield with an intermediate stop in Columbia in order to retain any service at all with Chicago-O’Hare.

The kicker in this discussion is Branson and the fact that burgeoning resort is building its own airport. Branson wants to decouple itself from the somewhat inconveniently located-vis-à-vis Branson-National Airport on the north side of Springfield some 40 miles away. Given Branson’s surging popularity as a destination, one or more air carriers are expected to add service there, perhaps endangering Springfield’s somewhat heady level of activity with American-Eagle.

The impending loss of Branson-bound bookings in favor of that community’s own new airport should be reason for Springfield and Columbia government and civic leaders to work together with a carrier such as American-Eagle in order to guarantee airline service in and out of both cities.

Given the importance of airline service in the sphere of this country’s transportation needs, I will argue for additional government regulation and subsidies. Until it was abolished in the early ‘80s, the Civil Aeronautics Board regulated both flights and fares across the land.

Transportation around this vast country has simply become too vital to the national interest to be left to almost whimsical private investor-based capitalistic practices that wrecked Kansas City-based Trans World Airlines for example. Underscored by the decades-long neglect of the railroads and the almost desperate need to devise new means of financing highway construction and maintenance, inter-city airline service must be brought back to health, perhaps, and I hate to say this, under almost socialistic conditions.

As for the Columbia area right now, let’s forget about flying to Memphis. Let’s get the pressure up to getting linked with Chicago-O’Hare. The sooner we can fly in and out of one of the world’s largest airports, the better Columbia can cope as the region transitions to the next level of its growth and development.