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Beleaguered Pan Am Corp. faces big problems getting its new shuttle service at La Guardia Airport off the ground as scheduled Oct. 1.
For one thing, the airline doesn't have enough takeoff and landing slots at La Guardia to match Eastern's 15 hourly flights each day to Washington and Boston, putting Pan Am at a distinct competitive disadvantage.
The carrier also faces a battle with the powerful lobby representing corporate jet users, a tight construction schedule and possible neighborhood opposition to its new shuttle site.
Problems with the potentially lucrative shuttle service are the last thing Pan Am needs. The corporation, battered by a drop in transatlantic travel, last week reported a second-quarter loss of $152.4 million. In addition, sources say Pan Am is about to pay fines for alleged safety violations uncovered during a comprehensive Federal Aviation Administration inspection.
Publicly at least, officials at Pan Am and at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates La Guardia, express optimism that the shuttle problems can be resolved in the next seven weeks.
"It's our position that the service can begin on the first of October," says a Pan Am spokesman. "There are some loose ends to tie up, but there's nothing that's insurmountable."
Even if Pan Am inaugurates service on Oct. 1, however, there could be some glaring holes in its hourly schedules. As of Aug. 1, Pan Am still needed two departure slots at 8:30 a.m., and one each at 11:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. It needed arrival slots at 7:30 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., and every hour from 2:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
"Certainly there are a number of hurdles they have to get over," says Edward P. Faberman, deputy chief counsel at the Federal Aviation Administration.
To resolve the slot problem, Pan Am is asking the FAA to reallocate 12 slots a day now reserved...