ST. LOUIS, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- The last airline affiliated with MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Mascoutah, Ill., says it is pulling out.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Monday that Allegiant Air has confirmed it is ceasing passenger service from the St. Louis-area airport to Las Vegas, where it is based, as of Jan. 3, 2009. Allegiant started service at MidAmerica in April 2005.
The twice-weekly airline service was the final passenger offering at the Mascoutah airport that has been struggling to compete with Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, Allegiant spokeswoman Tyri Squyres said.
"Competitively, there's some good low-cost service out of Lambert," Squyres said of the St. Louis airport. "We have been considering this for a long time and it was a difficult decision ... . It's just the geography of that situation can't be helped."
MidAmerica officially opened its $213 million facility in 1998, but did not begin offering any regular service until 2000 when Pan American Airways arrived.
The Post-Dispatch said Pan American was later replaced by Great Plains Airlines, which left the airport in January 2004 amid financial woes.
