THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 22, 1996 TAG: 9606220237
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: 38 lines
ValuJet Airlines shut down its reservations center in the Newport News airport's old terminal, prompting the company running the center to furlough its 250 workers.
The center stopped taking calls Wednesday afternoon, said general manager Cary Nievinksi of Dakotah Reservations Inc., which manages the center for ValuJet.
ValuJet agreed to stop flying Monday because a Federal Aviation Administration investigation found numerous airplane maintenance problems. Company executives have said they intend to resume flights to at least some of the 31 cities it was serving in mid-July.
For now, the airline is routing all calls to its reservations operation in Atlanta, where the company is based, Nievinski said. ValuJet's only other reservations center, in Savannah, Ga., closed Tuesday.
Nievinksi said Dakotah is seeking other customers for the center.
The center hopes to bring as many employees back to work as soon as possible, he added. If the center gets new business, and only some of the 250 employees are needed, workers will be called back according to seniority, he said. The reservations center opened in February.
ValuJet agreed to pay the airport about $600,000 over five years to rent the space. The company invested about $1.5 million in the building and the Peninsula Airport Commission spent about $300,000 on improvements.
Dakotah wants to serve the airline, which began serving Newport News last July, when it resumes flying, Nievinski said.
James Smith, the airport's executive director, said he spoke to a ValuJet vice president this week and felt confident the airline would return to business.
``We're in hopes of being one of the first to come back,'' Smith said, referring to the cities where the airline would resume flights. by CNB