The Triad is on the radar screen for yet another low-fare airline.
This time, however, JetAmerica is not just looking at Piedmont Triad International Airport, but also at Smith Reynolds Airport.
The startup airline, based in Clearwater, Fla., begins selling tickets today for service in these cities: Lansing, Mich.; Melbourne, Fla.; Minneapolis; Newark, N.J.;South Bend, Ind.; and Toledo, Ohio. Service is expected to begin in mid-July, with no more than one daily flight for each airport.
The airline's goal is serving underÂutilized airports with at least 3 million residents within a 75-mile radius.
That's why the Triad appears on its expansion list for 2010, said John Weikle, the chief executive of JetAmerica and the founder of Skybus Airlines Inc. Other possible expansion sites include Charleston, W.Va.; Rockford, Ill.; Cincinnati; Columbus, Ohio; Dayton, Ohio; Pittsburgh; and St. Petersburg/Clearwater, Fla.
"We feel confident that the Triad will respond to a low-fare carrier if the price is right," Weikle said.
He said yesterday that even though PTI may be the likely destination for JetAmerica, he is intrigued by the idea of being the only airline to serve Smith Reynolds.
Smith Reynolds has not had scheduled passenger service since January 2000, when CC Air, a regional carrier of US Airways, stopped flying into Winston-Salem.
Larry Scantlin, the director of Smith Reynolds, said that although he would welcome the return of commercial service to the airport, he would have to investigate the airline's financial and operational health.
Ted Johnson, the executive director at PTI, said he had not heard of JetAmerica before yesterday, but said, "We'll obviously pursue what the airline has in mind and determine how serious it is and the level of its financial backing."
Weikle acknowledged that comparisons of JetAmerica to Skybus are inevitable. Weikle left Skybus in May 2007, shortly after its first commercial flight.
Amid a great marketing blitz, Skybus gained local incentives to operate a second hub at PTI, only to go out of business within three months in April 2008.
"The Triad market was not the problem with Skybus, but rather operational issues," Weikle said.
JetAmerica is offering $9 tickets on at least nine seats on each flight -- a similar approach to Skybus. It also plans to charge for certain services, such as luggage, drinks, snacks and in-flight television.
Weikle said that JetAmerica is taking a conservative approach to growth, aiming to add four planes a year through 2014.
It is subcontracting its aircraft and flight crews from Miami Air International, and also subcontracting ticket and ground crew, rather than hiring and training its own employees.
It will have a reservation center to call rather than relying on Internet sales.
JetAmerica has request grants or marketing assistance from four of the airports it is serving. Johnson said that the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority still has in place an incentives program worth $2.15 a passenger for each flight connected to new service at the airport.
The Triad has, for good reason, a healthy skepticism of low-fare carriers, said Keith Debbage, an aviation analyst and a professor of geography at UNC Greensboro,
Besides Skybus, the other discount carriers that have not made it at PTI in the past 16 years are AirTran Airways, Shuttle America, Eastwind Airlines, People Express, Continental Lite and Independence Air.
Given that the average low-fare carrier has lasted 18 to 24 months, Debbage said, his top piece of advice "would be to not offer incentives to another low-fare carrier given the Skybus experience."
"If they want to come in on their own, then certainly we would welcome the low fares, and the pressure on other airlines' fares, for however long the airline lasts," he said.
â– Richard Craver can be reached at 727-7376 or at rcraver@wsjournal.com.
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