If you wish there were more flight options in and out of Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport, you’re not alone. Monday, U.S. Representative Nikki Budzinski and U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth sent a letter to Robert Isom, the CEO of American Airlines, urging the airline to make more flight options available.
The letter states, “We write to express our concerns with the quality of the routes that American Airlines operates to and from Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport (SPI) in Springfield, Illinois. Having convenient and efficient routes from SPI is essential to the Central Illinois region’s quality of life and the longevity of the airport itself – a key economic driver in the community.”
Recent reductions in flight offerings have left the airport with only four airline routes: two daily American Airlines flights to and from Chicago and two other carriers’ routes to three destinations in Florida. The letter points out that current options to Chicago at 2:18 p.m. and 6:27 p.m. make it difficult for passengers to reach business needs in Chicago or make connections to other flights.
Ground handling for American Airlines at SPI is at a relatively low cost to the airline, and the airport is engaging the airline to re-work their lease this year to further lower their costs at SPI, according to Budzinski, Durbin and Duckworth.
The joint communication points to the major steps in recent years to leverage tens of millions in federal funds to invest in its infrastructure, and that the airport has an annual total economic impact of nearly $400 million with more than 2,600 jobs on the property and airport visitor spending of $33 million.