Article published May 29, 2009
JetAmerica ticket sales are off to flying start
Direct Air canceling Myrtle Beach flights
By DAVID PATCH
BLADE STAFF WRITER
While the latest discount airline to announce service in Toledo yesterday reported reservations traffic sufficient to disrupt its Web site intermittently, one of the earlier arrivals has pulled up its local stakes, at least temporarily.
During the first 36 hours after it began taking reservations, start-up carrier JetAmerica sold more than 10,000 tickets, including about 2,200 from the Toledo market and another 1,000 for people planning trips to Toledo from elsewhere, airline spokesman Brian Glazer said yesterday.
Although that's "right on target" with JetAmerica's goals, the spokesman said, "we were so inundated [with Web traffic] the first few hours that sparks were flying from our servers" and telephone reservationists skipped lunch yesterday.
During a staff report to the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority's Board of Directors about Toledo's new routes to Newark; Melbourne, Fla.; and Minneapolis-St. Paul that are scheduled to start this summer, the airport committee chairman called the JetAmerica service "the kind of news that we've obviously been searching for: direct service, low fares, and big jets."
But while JetAmerica received the fanfare, agents for Direct Air, which operated Toledo flights on two routes from December through April, yesterday contacted passengers booked to fly next month from Toledo to Myrtle Beach, S.C., to notify them of flight cancellations.
Judy Tull, Direct Air's chief executive officer, said the airline simply hadn't sold enough tickets on the twice-weekly summer flights to South Carolina to justify flying the planes, but plans to resume service between Toledo and Punta Gorda, Fla., in the fall."It just did not make sense to start a new route in this economy," Ms. Tull said. Bookings were "very, very low - not even 50 percent full on most of them," she said.
Joe Ludwig, a Swancreek Township resident who had bought Myrtle Beach tickets for next month, said he learned his flight was canceled when he called the airline to add baggage to his reservation.
While he said he appreciated the reason, "I was just a little incensed that nobody notified me, and I'm scheduled to fly in three weeks," he said Wednesday.
Ms. Tull said passengers were being called in chronological order of their departure dates and being offered incentives either to rebook their trips through other airports Direct Air will continue to serve, or to receive flight vouchers for future travel.
Refunds are available to those who desire them, she said.
"We plan to be back at Thanksgiving for Punta Gorda, the winter destination at which we were very successful" in Toledo last winter, Ms. Tull said. Punta Gorda is about 25 miles north of Fort Myers, Fla.
JetAmerica flights between Toledo and Newark are scheduled to begin July 13, with 6 a.m. departures daily except Saturday and afternoon or evening return flights.
Twice-weekly service to Melbourne is set to start the next day, while thrice-weekly roundtrips to the Twin Cities begin Aug. 14. At least nine seats on every flight will have a $9 promotional fare, although various fees and taxes mean the actual price will be somewhat higher.
During a news conference Wednesday, JetAmerica president John Weikle said his airline needs to fill about three-quarters of its jets' 189 seats on average, with average per-passenger revenue of about $91, to fulfill its business plan. If the initial routes don't meet those targets, the carrier will try alternatives suggested by its consultants, he said.
Ms. Tull said Direct Air's results with the Toledo-Myrtle Beach route do not necessarily bode poorly for JetAmerica's plans, especially regarding Toledo-Newark.
"They're going after a different market: business travelers," she said.
Contact David Patch at:
dpatch@theblade.com
or 419-724-6094.
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