Mar 7, 2008 6:13 am US/Central
ATA To Leave Midway Airport
Airline Blames High Fuel Prices
CHICAGO (AP) ―
High fuel prices will force ATA Airlines to leave Midway International Airport starting next month, the company announced Thursday.
ATA will stop its domestic flights out of Midway on April 14 and its international flights to Mexico on June 7.
The decision will not affect its scheduled commercial flights to Hawaii from Oakland, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas, spokesman Steve Forsyth said.
"This was a difficult decision, but the high cost of fuel has made it economically unfeasible to continue our low-fare service at Midway," said Rob Binns, ATA's chief commercial and planning officer, in a statement released Thursday. "We will redeploy our ATA aircraft in profitable charter service."
Indianapolis-based ATA has operated a Midway hub since 1992. Its domestic flights from there include service to Dallas/Fort Worth and Oakland, Calif.
ATA operates a code sharing agreement with Southwest Airlines under which passengers can buy a ticket and fly on either airline to certain destinations. Forsyth said that remains intact, although the airlines will lose ATA's Dallas-Chicago flights.
ATA emerged from federal bankruptcy protection in 2006 and is now a subsidiary of Global Aero Logistics Inc.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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