“We were unable to reach an agreement with American Airlines,” said Greg Overman, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots’ Association, the pilots’ union for American Airlines.
If the union and American had agreed on a waiver from their contract, Corporate Airlines of Smyrna, Tenn., could have started providing connecting flights among six North Carolina airports and Raleigh-Durham International. Corporate is a feeder for American.
The waiver would be to grant an exception to a clause that says American Airline pilots will fly all flights into RDU that generate revenues for the company, Overman said in a Monday telephone interview.
The only airline that has been granted an exception is American Eagle, which is a subsidiary of Amer Corp., the parent company of American Airlines, Overman said. Corporate would fly under contract for American Eagle. Company officials would not say why the waiver request was denied.
The Moore County Airport Authority’s task force will have to go out on its own and beat the bushes once again, member Bob Hawkins said in a telephone interview Monday.
Moore County and five other airports formed a consortium that appeared to have worked out a deal with Corporate, pending approval of the contract waiver. The six airports either lacked commercial service or had their service severely curtailed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and because of the sluggish economy.
The authority task force was formed soon after CCAir, flying under contract as US Airways Express, discontinued service in April 2002. CCAir provided roundtrip flights with Charlotte-Douglas International Airport
Since then, there has been no regular, commercial passenger service at the Moore County Airport.
The FAA awarded the consortium a $1.2 million grant to cover some of the start-up costs for the service.
“Corporate could still be a prospect, but it has been shelved at least for now,” Hawkins said. “We’ve got to go out and look around on our own.”
Hawkins, a Pinehurst resident and retired American Airlines regional director of marketing, told the airport authority last week that the local task force couldn’t sit back and rely on the state agency to recruit an airline service for it.
Hickory has gone out on its own and will pay six figures to another airline for service between Gary, Ind., and Florida, Hawkins told the authority. The Hickory airport, like Moore County, has no service. Both were served by US Airways Express out of Charlotte.
The other airports in the consortium are Wilmington, Kinston, New Bern and Fayetteville.
The airline industry continues to be volatile, Hawkins said, so that the Corporate deal might eventually come though. But fuel prices are high, and the industry hasn’t fully recovered from the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he said.
“We’re not going to sit around and just wait for somebody to help us,” he said. “We’re going to move ahead. “
Hawkins said he wasn’t surprised that the deal with Corporate fell through.
“We have a de facto situation now,” he said. “We’re taking the position that the waiver has stalled for the short term, and we want to come to some solution. Something could happen any day.”
Hawkins said it would be a “challenge” to be able to have a plan to replace airline service by September 2004. That’s when ttje task force had hoped the Corporate Airline deal would be starting up service, under American Eagle.
The federal grant, awarded through the state Division of Aviation, requires that the service be in place by that date, although the grant itself doesn’t expire until 2005.
“Our dialogue with American Airlines is pretty much done,” said Corporate Airlines President Douglas Caldwell in a Monday interview from his office. “They know our position. We’ve still got the project on the back burner and are keeping an eye on the situation if something should change.”
Caldwell said he had no idea why the waiver wasn’t granted when it once looked so promising.
“I’m not knowledgeable about what went on in the talks,” he said.
Harold Garner, chairman of the Moore County Airport Authority, said he had learned the union and American Airlines had very recently signed an agreement allowing Boston’s airport to be added to the list of American Airline hubs and Nashville may be next. He questioned why Raleigh-Durham would not be included.
Recently, Garner said if the airport is listed as a “hub” for the airline, it could clear the way for Corporate to obtain a waiver and begin service.
Private charter service is expected to be used temporarily to serve the Moore County Airport for the 2005 U.S. Open, according to a task force member.
