United, Others Alter Air Service in State.

United Airlines' regional partner carrier, United Express, will end service at Little Rock National Airport as of Oct. 31.

Rono Dutta, United's president, said in a news release that the decision was "driven by the terrorist attacks on our country and soft passenger demand."

United has three flights a day from Little Rock, each going to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Those flights, and three return flights from O'Hare, have been canceled.

United Express' flights in Little Rock operated with 50-seat regional jets. Deborah Schwartz, airport manager, speculated that United might need the smaller express jets to replace larger mainline aircraft in larger markets. The airline said it would replace mainline service with express service in six cities across the U.S. as of Oct. 31.

On the plus side, United also said it's cutting business fares as much as 50 percent for some flights through Dec. 31.

United is offering a new fare option which is priced at 50 percent off the current unrestricted business fare, which requires a 21-day advance purchase and a on- or two-night minimum stay. A similar fare with up to a 25 percent off discount is also available with a 10-day advance purchase.

Other services altered at the Little Rock airport include:

* American Eagle dropped one round trip to Dallas/Fort Worth.

* USAirways Express dropped four flights: two to Kansas City, Mo., one to Kansas City, Mo., one to New Orleans and one to Nashville, Tenn.

* Northwest Airlines dropped its fourth nonstop flight to Memphis at least through the end of the month.

* Beginning Nov. 1, TWA will cut a 7:30 p.m. flight for St. Louis and a flight from St. Louis that arrives in Little Rock at 11:48 p.m.

* In October, one of five daily Delta flights to Atlanta has been canceled. Delta said it will return to a full schedule on Nov. 2.

* Southwest Airlines and American Airlines have not altered their schedules.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., said United's decision to cancel has made her rethink her support for a government bailout of domestic airlines, hurt after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

"If I had known that United was simply going to take the money, then announce they would no longer serve my constituents, I might have thought again about the vote I cast in favor of that package," Lincoln said.

Three of the 46 round-trip flights leaving the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) were canceled permanently in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, said Scott Van Laningham, executive director of the airport in Highfill.

American Eagle, the local carrier for American Airlines, canceled two of its 11 round-trip flights to Dallas a week after the terrorist attack.

In addition to nine round-trip flights to DFW, American Eagle operates tow round-trip flights to New York City's LaGuardia Airport, and American Airlines has three round-trip flights to Chicago.

Van Laningham said Northwest Airlines planned to cancel one round-trip flight from XNA to Memphis. Although Northwest didn't specify which flight that would be, Van Laningham said it would likely be one that leaves XNA daily at either 4:40 p.m. or 9:15 p.m.

Northwest also dropped one of its four round-trip flights to Memphis at Fort Smith. A spokesman said the airline was evaluating its market needs and didn't anticipate making any further reductions.

A Fort Smith airport spokesman said there were no plans to cut any of American Eagle's nine daily flights out of Fort Smith although that could change.