05/08/01
By LARRY HANOVER
Trenton Times Staff Writer
Shuttle America, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection three weeks ago, says it may be only a week away from announcing a plan to help it survive falling $18 million in debt.
Shuttle America, which has a fleet of four leased 50-seat turboprops, is Trenton Mercer Airport's only passenger airline.
The airline has been seeking $20 million in new investment to continue operating. It also has been looking into a deal to link with an existing airline.
Spokesman Mark Cestari said the airline is looking into shifting partly or completely to similar-sized regional jets. He said it might instead bring back two additional Dash-8 turboprops that were sent for maintenance overhaul.
The airline, launched in November 1998, this year reduced Mercer operations from 28 to 20 flights daily.
Cestari said the airline, which flies from the Ewing facility to Buffalo, N.Y., suburban Boston and Greensboro, N.C., intends to add flights and plans to pursue a new route to Washington and perhaps Pittsburgh.
Jim Peters, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, said the agency would not make such a decision unless requested by Shuttle America.
FAA regulations state an environmental assessment is needed if jet service is proposed for the first time at an airport, Peters said. Regulations also say the study is needed if an airline introduces a different type of aircraft to a facility.
An environmental assessment already is under way at Trenton Mercer for a proposed $18 million new terminal. That study also covers the introduction of jet service, which the FAA concedes should have been done when now-defunct Eastwind Airlines came to the airport in 1995.
Shuttle America was $160,789 behind in rent to Mercer County at the time of its bankruptcy filing. County administration spokeswoman Robin Williams said the airline has not fallen further behind since.
Meanwhile, the airline is showing an increase in traffic on its flights.
The airline's arrivals rose from March to April, Williams said, jumping from 6,250 people to 7,200. Last year, Shuttle America's arrivals were 5,380 in March and 6,750 in April.