Here comes JetAmerica

[T-Bird76]

Another fly by night is starting up.....

http://www.jetamerica.com/

[moose135]

I don't know if I would call it a "fly by night" - it's operated by Miami Air, who do all those sports charters, so it has a pretty reputable company behind it. Also, the main page says it is a charter operation - if you check out the flight schedule, they only have a very limited number of flights available. Sounds like Miami Air is looking for a way to get some extra utilization on their jets between team charters.

[MarkLawrence]

Looks like it will be a nice scheme to catch! Of course, I'm sure Bill will get it first as EWR is one of the airports.....

[Midnight Mike]

The Federal Government needs to stay out of the airline business

South Bend, Toledo and Melbourne received their grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Small Community Air Service Development Program, which has awarded $104 million to 223 recipients since 2002 in an effort to restore lost service and bring air fares down.

[N101CV]

This airline is pretty interesting yet they are not really working from a new idea. They are not owned or invested in by Miami Air. They are a seperate company who are going to do an ACMI deal with Miami Air. They hope to obtain their own part 121 cert. in 12 to 24 months but we shall see. I give them a chance of survival similar to that of a snowball in the land of Hades. The cities do not make very much sense and rumor is that there are some members of Skybus brass involved in this deal. What I fail to figure out is that even with the credit market at least at first look getting a wee bit better how anyone would toss money at this idea. Honestly, I think that we are at critical mass as it is in terms of number of carriers in the US market right now untill we open the 5th freedome rights. Than I would love to see what would happen.

[Matt Molnar]

They were originally called Air Azul, but changed the name, probably to avoid confusion with Neeleman's new Brazilian airline. And yes, SkyBus founder John Weikle is involved. The original plan called for using a Sun Country 737-800, but that fell through.

[SengaB]

I am pretty excited about this one. With all the crappy liveries we have seen lately this one is slightly encouraging. I do hope this actually takes place. I am sure it will go the way of Hooters, Maxjet, EOS and the like eventually.
It reminds me of ONA's DC-8 bi-centennial liveries.



Senga

[T-Bird76]

I don't know if I would call it a "fly by night" - it's operated by Miami Air, who do all those sports charters, so it has a pretty reputable company behind it. Also, the main page says it is a charter operation - if you check out the flight schedule, they only have a very limited number of flights available. Sounds like Miami Air is looking for a way to get some extra utilization on their jets between team charters.

Jon the airline isn't being run by Miamiair...they are just leasing the planes to JetAmerica.

[PhilDernerJr]

I don't think it's a lease. When it says it's a charter "operated by Miami Air" like it does on the JetAmerica site, that usually means that Miami Air is providing the aircraft, crews. This just looks like a full service charter with a repainted plane. While Miami Air may not own it or run the show, they ARE operating it, it seems.

[N101CV]

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/ ... 63909.blog

This one came off the wire from USAToday this morning on these guys. I am skeptical of this though. It looks like they are thinking of tapping alot of WN cities in their long range plans. It is almost like they want to be a hybrid G4/WN carrier.
ACMI takes alot of debt off their hands in the overall because it would be month to month leaseing on the planes but it just seems as T-Bird put it that this will be one of those fly by nights that we do not even remember existed 3 months after they tank out.

[T-Bird76]

I don't think it's a lease. When it says it's a charter "operated by Miami Air" like it does on the JetAmerica site, that usually means that Miami Air is providing the aircraft, crews. This just looks like a full service charter with a repainted plane. While Miami Air may not own it or run the show, they ARE operating it, it seems.

Its a Wet lease Phil.

[Matt Molnar]

They plan on making 36 flights a week with a single plane. Good luck if it breaks down somewhere, especially since the tiny airports they're using don't normally have any 737s to service.

Anyway, a couple of notes from a NY Post article today...

* They claim with the $9 fares, they'll turn a profit as long as the plane is 70% full
* The regional airports they're using are able to waive landing fees thanks to Federal grants. Thanks, Uncle Sam!
* Choosing your seat costs $10.
* Soft drinks are $2, alcohol is $6, snacks are $2-$5, and apparently the plane has personal TVs...for $5.
* First bag is $15 (though their site said $20 when I looked yesterday)
* They see South Bend as an opportunity to cash in on the 25,000 NYers annually who visit for Notre Dame football games.

[PhilDernerJr]

[quote=T-Bird76]

I don't think it's a lease. When it says it's a charter "operated by Miami Air" like it does on the JetAmerica site, that usually means that Miami Air is providing the aircraft, crews. This just looks like a full service charter with a repainted plane. While Miami Air may not own it or run the show, they ARE operating it, it seems.

Its a Wet lease Phil.[/quote:3haaio00]

Do you have a source? Few people I know are also trying to find info on that and we can't find it. Thanks yo.

[Matt Molnar]

ACMI - Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance & Insurance

The LESSOR provides the aircraft, one or more complete crews (including engineers) including their salaries and usually allowances, all maintenance for the aircraft and insurance, which usually includes hull and third party liability. The LESSOR will charge for the block hour (choc off to choc on) and depending on the aircraft type sets a minimum guaranteed block hours limit per month. If the airplane flies or not, the LESSEE must pay the amount for the minimum guaranteed block hours.

The LESSEE has to provide all fuel, landing/handling/parking/storage fees, crew HOTAC including meals and transportation as well as visa fees, import duties where applicable as well as local taxes. Furthermore the LESSEE has to provide passenger/luggage and cargo insurance and in some cases need to cover the costs for War Risk. Furthermore the LESSEE has to pay the over flight/navigation charges. This point is a bit complicated. When flights are operating they use a flight number, which is issued to airlines by the ICAO. In order to cover the costs of air traffic control services, states over flown will send a bill to the owner of the flight number, which can be readily identified by its code. The aircraft owner will probably have a code, but will not want to use it because he will end up paying the bills. Therefore, an ACMI lease requires that the LESSEE provide his own flight number, so that the bills can be directed to him. Thus, an ACMI lease can usually only take place between two ICAO member states airlines unless other arrangements have been made between LESSOR and LESSEE.

Wet Lease

Is basically ACMI as explained above. The period can go from one month to usually one to two years. Everything less than one month can be considered as ad-hoc charter.

[lijk604]

* They claim with the $9 fares, they'll turn a profit as long as the plane is 70% full

Well, they are only selling 9 seats on each flight at $9, so that's not too much of a dent in revenue.
Figure a typical $99 fare selling at $9 for 9 seats, that means for those 9 seats they only lose $810 ($90x9) in revenue.