The Colorado Springs Airport is taking nearly twice as large a hit as the rest of the nation's airports from flight cuts imposed by major airlines to combat soaring fuel prices, according to an analysis by a Massachusetts- based economic consulting firm.

Planned or already completed cuts by six of the 10 airlines that have served the Springs airport this year will reduce the number of seats available on local arriving and departing flights by 15.8 percent - or 1,154 a day - by November, compared with the same month a year ago.

That ranks 19th among the nation's 100 largest airports and is more than twice the 9.5 percent average reduction among those airports, according to a recent analysis by LECG LLC.

Nearly half the capacity loss in the Springs will come Sept. 2 when ExpressJet Airlines suspends all flying under its own brand. That will include a total of five daily round-trip flights from Colorado Springs to California (Ontario, Sacramento and San Diego). ExpressJet will continue flying its Continental Express flights, including daily service between the Springs and Houston, although Continental also has trimmed one of those flights.

Other cuts include:

* Two daily round-trip flights to Kansas City, Mo., eliminated in April, when Midwest Airlines ended service to the Springs.

* Daily round-trip flights to Las Vegas on U.S. Airways and to Memphis, Tenn., on Northwest Airlines, respectively.

Delta Air Lines ended round-trip service to Cincinnati in April and earlier reduced flights to Atlanta and Salt Lake City. American Airlines is axing a round-trip flight to Dallas. The Delta moves were unrelated to fuel costs.

Those cuts have been somewhat offset by Frontier Airlines, which added five daily round- trip flights April 15 between Colorado Springs and Denver, adding 710 seats a day and about 11.1 percent to the daily seat capacity on local flights.

Taking into account all of the cuts and additions, the airport's "worst-case scenario" forecasts that passenger traffic this year will decline as much as 1.9 percent from a year ago to the lowest level since 2003.

"We had just added a lot of service in the last year, and those gains plus a little more will be wiped out by the ongoing capacity reductions resulting from the fuel price spike," said Mark

Earle, the city's aviation director. "We have barely adjusted to having that revenue in our budget. So at this point, we have felt the financial impact, but it hasn't been huge. When this began happening, we developed contingency plans and have begun to put them in place."

The airport raised its rent and fees last month by 3.9 percent to $8.52 per passenger and hopes to avoid another hike in January.