Tennessee-Based Airline to Land at Illinois Airport

It promises to be a summer of change for Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport:

* A new air service - make that a replacement air service - is expected to begin at the end of June.

* Preliminary work has begun on reconfiguration of space and a new tenant mix in the airport terminal.

* An informational meeting scheduled for Thursday is an early step toward relocating the main entrance on J. David Jones Parkway.

First, about local flights. Trans States Airlines of St. Louis announced in February it would drop AmericanConnection service between Springfield and Lambert International Airport in St. Louis at the end of June.

Trans States is phasing out turboprop flights in favor of regional jet service in more profitable markets. The carrier also is dropping service in Decatur and in Columbia, Joplin and Springfield in Missouri.

A replacement airline, Tennessee-based RegionsAir, is in the works, said airport executive director Eric Frankl. Regions also flies turboprops. Talks with that carrier were opened immediately after the Trans States announcement.

"It's basically been determined that they're coming ... the only question is some transitional issues," Frankl said.

Still, the Trans States announcement did its damage. AmericanConnection passenger numbers were down 22 percent in March. Frankl said bookings dropped as soon as the announcement was made about plans to discontinue service.

Springfield-to-St. Louis remains a vital route, and airport officials are pushing hard for the replacement service. Loss of the route would leave Springfield with only one way out, United Express to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

Frankl said renovation has begun inside the terminal, but details of the project still are being worked out. It will result in a new look, reconfiguring some existing space and possibly a new tenant mix.

Meanwhile, moving the main entrance to the airport farther south on J. David Jones Parkway is the subject of an informational public meeting from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday in the airport authority conference room.

The project has been in the works for a couple of years to allow for expansion of an Air National Guard facility at the airport. An existing intersection would be closed and a new intersection constructed about 600 feet to the south.

A guard shack also would be set up at the new entrance, but Frankl said the project would begin in 2007 at the earliest. The informational meeting will include exhibits of the proposed entrance and intersection. Representatives of the airport and Hanson Professional Services Inc., which is designing the project, will be available for questions and comments.

The airport authority conference room is on the upper level of the airport terminal.

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