By DOUG WILSON

Herald-Whig Senior Writer

Great Lakes Airlines had 122 outbound passengers from Quincy in June, and officials with the airline have hinted they will not seek to renew their federal contract when it expires in November.

"Great Lakes is saying they don't think they want to stay in the St. Louis market," said Marty Stegeman, manager of Quincy Regional Airport. "I don't know if that's marketing talk. I don't want to predict anything with airlines right now."

Monica Taylor, director of marketing for Great Lakes, said "that's not necessarily true" in response to a question about nonrenewal of the Quincy airport contract. She also said she could not comment on the company's intentions at this time.

The U.S. Department of Transportation plans to send out requests for proposals next week to learn what airlines are interested in serving Quincy under an Essential Air Service contract.

A small airline that Stegeman declined to identify has expressed interest in serving Quincy with nine-seat airplanes. Great Lakes is required to fly 19-seat planes between Quincy and St. Louis. Such large planes might not be economically feasible on a route that rarely has more than three or four passengers per flight.

Great Lakes was awarded a $1.53 million first-year EAS contract to serve Quincy in March 2007, but the air service did not start until November of that year, and the airline never received the full federal subsidy because of fewer flights and the lack of a codeshare with major airlines in St. Louis.

Other airports served by Great Lakes under federal contracts include the Illinois communities of Decatur and Marion, the Missouri communities of Fort Leonard Wood and Cape Girardeau, and Burlington, Iowa. EAS contracts will be considered in those communities, as well.

Quincy Regional Airport's annual number of airline passengers has been shrinking. RegionsAir transported 8,942 outbound passengers in 2005. The ridership was down to 1,996 in 2008 and 631 for the first half of 2009.

The airport had 14,000 boardings per year in 2001 and 2002.

Airport figures throughout the upper Midwest have been down. The eight-state region has 71 airports, and only 14 of those saw an increase in passengers in 2008. Stegeman said the average number of passengers using those airports dropped 16.44 percent last year.

Stegeman said the local airport and parts of the airline industry have been hit by a "perfect storm" in recent years. Airline travel was disrupted by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. High fuel prices cut into airline profits. Lambert Field Airport at St. Louis lost its status as an American Airlines hub.

Locally, the failure of RegionsAir in 2007 caused many travelers to start driving to St. Louis for flights during the eight months there was no commercial service out of Quincy.

-- dwilson@whig.com/221-3372