CAPE CENTRAL AIRWAYS BAROMETER OF ECONOMY

For charter and freight-carrying Cape Central Airways Inc., business has taken as many swings as the nation's economy.

It has ridden a holiday high, feeding off of business generated from national courier services like United Parcel Service that delivered last-minute Christmas gifts.

"We're doing a lot of that," said Mark Seesing, the company's director of operations. "We flew gifts out to people. It's great for business."

Terry Sutton, a professor of economics at Southeast Missouri State University, said services like Cape Central Airways provide reflect the overall condition of the economy.

"If that's up, the economy should be getting better. When times are tough, businesses cut back on flying and things like that," indicating that overall consumer spending is down, Sutton said.

Nationally, consumer spending was up 0.4 percent last month, one of several indicators showing that the economy is picking up at the end of the year, according to a Commerce Department report.

Cape Central is a $3-million-a-year business that contracts with UPS and other couriers to fly deliveries to smaller cities. The business, which employs 30 people, also charters flights for doctors, lawyers, auto executives and other professionals on daily trips. Occasionally, it will transfer sick patients to out-of-state hospitals.

It now operates 10 small airplanes and is adding two more.

Nationwide factory orders for durable goods like airplanes and other appliances that last more than three years shot up 2 percent, according to the Commerce Department.

But the private carrier is likely to see a drop in business in January and February, as consumers and other businesses cut back from the annual spending binges that punctuate the end of a year.

Perhaps as much as any small local business, Cape Central Airways also serves as a good indicator of how well the regional economy is doing.

"When the rest of the economy brings in its boot straps, businesses are more conservative about chartering airplanes," said Cape Central's owner, Mark Spatz.

"We're a pretty good barometer of how the economy's doing, in particular the auto industry," Spatz said.

Much of Cape Central's business comes from chartering auto executives and parts to and from places like Detroit and New England, even Canada.

Frequently, Cape Central will earn up to $3,000 to $4,000 to fly assembly-line parts to auto plants. "If they run out of a muffler for a certain kind of car, they've got to get it; otherwise the whole assembly line will shut down," Spatz said. And shutting down a line can cost $20,000 an hour, auto executives tell him.

"When the auto industry moves, generally all freight operators pick up," Spatz said.

Since buying the company nearly three years ago, Cape Central alternates between making money and losing money. This year it is operating in the black.