TOLEDO, Ohio -- Waiting forward a f...

TOLEDO, Ohio -- Waiting forward a flight home, Boris Sherman idea back to when he flew revealed of Toledo Express Airport eight years ago.

"The last time I was here, it was a hazard busier," said Sherman, a salesman from Providence, R.I. "All the airlines were flying from here. It's totally devoid of contents today."

It's not just Toledo.

Airlines trying to save standard of value and return to profitability have cross flights and replaced big planes with singles that have fewer seats forward routes serving small and midsize cities.

That's l to higher fares, fewer flight options or longer drives to nave airports for travelers and a reversal of fortunes for regional airports that until this year were seeing a breaker in passengers.

"The demand is still there. It's just that our folk are having to fare elsewhere to fly," said Phillip Johnson proxy director of Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Passenger numbers are down: 6 percent in Grand Rapids, 15 percent to 20 percent at airports in Mississippi and 16 percent in Toledo. Takeoffs are down according to about one-third over the last pair years to 21 departures a day at Toledo Expres where four of the five airlines had sculpture service this year.

"We've had resort to frequently schedule changes this year as airlines make experiment of to adjust capacity," said Terry Anderson, executive director of sour gum-tree Regional Airport in Mississippi. "Passengers can't rely forward a schedule that's in concrete"

sum of two units of the biggest carriers that undulate out of Grand Rapids -- Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. -- are operating in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and are using smaller planes equal though many are full.

"Bankruptcy forces an airline to do things they may not want to do," Johnson said. "They have no choice in doing it to restructure the company."

U airlines also are putting chiefly of their new seats in courses to Europe, Latin America and Asia while shrinking a domestic routes, hoping it will allow them to raise fares to protect soaring fuel costs.

Aviation consultant Robert Mann said firing costs have made a part of routes unprofitable, and restructuring carriers are dropping those flights.

"Their first goal is to come by rid of the losers," Mann said. "Some of this will be permanent."

near airport directors say higher gasoline prices and les disposable income contributed to the decline of passengers.

Fewer flights in and abroad of small airports have had other repercussions, cutting into sales at restaurants and souvenir stores parking revenue and landing unconditional tenures that airports collect from airlines.

A pabulum court added in Toledo five years ago probably will let slip through the fingers money this year, airport director Paul Toth said. "This year, it's going to require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergone us $25,000 to keep the concessions open" he said.

At Manchester Boston Regional Airport in modern Hampshire, landing fees fell by dint of $204,000 during the budget year that fall of the curtained in June.

There also are more headaches for travelers when a connecting flight is late or weather delays their departure.

Passenger numbers had been up at many regional airports, partly because they are frequently more convenient than the bigger, more congest nave airports such as Chicago's O'Hare.

Passengers can park, prepare their tickets and go [i]or[/i] part of to the other security in less than 15 minutes at Fort Wayne (Ind.) International Airport, said spokeswoman Kristi Holme "I challenge them to do that at O'Hare," she said.

further this year more people are opting to soar out of Chicago or Indianapolis, where fares were an average $126 according to the mostly recent statistics, instead of Fort Wayne, which onward average was $50 more for a flight in 2005 she said.

The gap present the appearances to be growing -- a Thanksgiving flight from Indianapolis to Atlanta this year will take away from $247, while flying out of Fort Wayne will preciousness $399 -- and pushing more passengers to bigger airports.

"There's no motivation for the airlines to lower their fares," Holme said.

Sherman, who was waiting for a connecting flight to Detroit before going forward to Providence, looked into flying to Fort Wayne, which was closer to his business meeting. further the price was nearly $1000 double what he paid for his fare to Toledo.

"I'd rather drive an extra hour," he said.

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soded

Passenger numbers are down at many regional airports this year because airlines are cutting flights and replacing big planes with singles that have fewer seats.

- Toledo Expres Airport: 16 percent

- pepperidge (Miss.) Regional Airport: 15 percent

- Manchester (NH) Boston Regional Airport: 8 percent

- Gerald R Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Mich.: 6 percent

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