By AP/KWMU
Mascoutah, Ill. – The passenger gates at MidAmerica Airport are empty again. The only tenant there, Great Plains Airlines, filed for bankruptcy Friday.
It laid off workers and suspended flights, having only been flying in and out of MidAmerica for a few months.
Great Plains is still providing charter service. Its start in late 2003 at MidAmerica breathed life back into an airport that had been virtually vacant for two years. The airport's previous tenant, PanAm, stopped flying out of MidAmerica in 2001.
St. Clair County officials are planning to meet with company executives this week.
MidAmerica Director Tim Cantwell says the airport remains "very supportive" of the struggling Tulsa, Oklahoma-based carrier.
MidAmerica opened in 1997 and is located about 20 miles east of St. Louis in Mascoutah, Ill.