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More than passengers departing Sarasota-Bradenton airportBy STEVE HUETTEL © St. Petersburg Times, published February 19, 2001 Will the last airline to leave Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport please roll up the runway? Maybe it's not that bad, but you can't blame executive director Fred Piccolo for feeling snake bit. TWA pulled out in September. Tiny Southeast Airlines of Largo departed in January after just three months. Northwest Airlines cut its Detroit service to six months of the year. Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines and US Airways have scaled back flights. Piccolo, formerly the No. 2 man at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, came back to his office from a Feb. 5 board meeting to find executives of American Eagle waiting with more bad news: The commuter arm of American Airlines parent AMR Corp. was leaving in April. The airline lost $1.6-million at Sarasota-Bradenton last year, they said, because high-fare business travelers headed to Miami were driving to Tampa for American jet flights rather than catching Eagle's local turboprops. "The basic premise was American drove American out of business here," Piccolo said. Things might start looking up, he said. Florida Air, a new commuter carrier, is set to start Miami flights and could have up to 20 departures by the end of the month, he said. Pan Am, a New Hampshire start-up that bought the venerable airline's name, is scouting Sarasota as one of several Florida cities that could feed its hub at Sanford International Airport near Orlando. The airline also is looking at flying 19-seat commuter planes from Pensacola, Tallahassee, Marathon, Fort Myers and Fort Lauderdale to Sanford, Pan Am president Dave Fink said. He'll make a decision in two or three months.
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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