4 Strange Airline Start Ups That Flopped

[ChasenSFO]

SouthEast Airlines...The airline Paris Hilton brought down.

For serious?

 

[Kingairer]

For serious?

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/travel/flights/today/2005-02-10-sky-archivefeb09_x.htm

 

[SA227driver]

http://www.flycpair.com/

Last time I was in CRQ, they had that bird sitting on the ramp. And that's all it was doing.

 

[Cal Goat]

Last time I was in CRQ, they had that bird sitting on the ramp. And that's all it was doing.

I spent the first 6 months of this year flying into CRQ very regularly and their Embraer was sitting in the same spot for most of that time. Then one day it was gone. Not sure what happened, but all of their propaganda is still in the terminal. There's a ticket counter with their name on it. I really need to ask the rampers what the deal is... but then I'm not sure I even really care.

 

[H46Bubba]

I spent the first 6 months of this year flying into CRQ very regularly and their Embraer was sitting in the same spot for most of that time. Then one day it was gone. Not sure what happened, but all of their propaganda is still in the terminal. There's a ticket counter with their name on it. I really need to ask the rampers what the deal is... but then I'm not sure I even really care.

Looks like the FAA denied their cert and they just reapplied for a new one on October 1st.
Proposed Carlsbad airline refiles application

 

[Cal Goat]

Looks like the FAA denied their cert and they just reapplied for a new one on October 1st.
Proposed Carlsbad airline refiles application

I wonder how many pilots they've hired and whether or not they're actually getting paid at this time.

 

[H46Bubba]

Here's another startup that flew into the sunset.

 

[ChasenSFO]

TMA wasn't really strange tho, just another run of the mill medium-range charter company. I think they dabbed into scheduled flying for a little bit.

I wonder how many pilots they've hired and whether or not they're actually getting paid at this time.

I don't think they hired any pilots or support staff. Just management, perhaps training pilots in addition to the CP. Doubt any of them are getting paid. In fact, I was told the reason for the delay in certification was the airline couldn't hire staff until certified but also couldn't get staff trained in time to meet the FAAs deadlines for certification. Not sure about the fact behind this.

Here is a strange airline for you. Skybus. No, not the psychadelic Ohio A319 operator. This Skybus:

Yes, that 727 is wearing Sunglasses and smiling with its mouth open in a way that suggests it's chewing Tobacco. The airline was around for a heartbeat in 1993. Why was it so strange, other than the paint scheme? Well, after doing a single public charter from EWR-SXM, they decided "eff this ad hoc stuff we told the investors and our employees we were going to do, let's do scheduled public charters". I will let facts I found on the internet tell the rest of the story. Keep in mind this ambitious airline had but ONE airplane. One. Remember that. Here's what they tried to do:

Full flight schedule with air fares.
Full route map.

And HERE is how that went for them.(The 4 DC-9s comment is wrong, those were not operated by SkyBus)

Skybus, a fledgling no-frills charter service offering low fares between Florida and the Northeast, stopped flying June 29 amid conflicting reports over unpaid bills. Nevertheless, Skybus said it was grounded only temporarily and would resume service soon.
Because Skybus was a public charter and lacked approvals from the Government to operate its own flights, it hired another charter carrier to serve its routes. Its most recent carrier, Express One of Dallas, said it stopped flying for Skybus because it was owed more than $500,000 from the Fort Lauderdale-based company, which began operating last September, using Jet Expeditions. Skybus said it had not paid Express One because it was unable to collect more than $1 million in ticket revenues from CD Travel, an agency in Fort Lauderdale that handles its reservations and ticketing. CD officials said Skybus has received every dollar it was owed.
Skybus also said it was owed about $600,000 from processors of its credit card sales. A person familiar with the company's affairs said the processors were witholding payment because too many Skybus customers were charging back their Skybus tickets.

You can't make this stuff up. And 20 years later, there was this:

Yeah. That.

 

[bafanguy]

I don't think it's been mentioned. As I recall, the airline actually had a good reputation with business travelers.

Air Atlanta ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Atlanta

http://articles.philly.com/1987-04-06/business/26193398_1_michael-r-hollis-bankruptcy-airline

http://saportareport.com/blog/2012/06/air-atlanta-founder-michael-hollis-58-passes-away/

 

[Autothrust Blue]

I spent the first 6 months of this year flying into CRQ very regularly and their Embraer was sitting in the same spot for most of that time. Then one day it was gone. Not sure what happened, but all of their propaganda is still in the terminal. There's a ticket counter with their name on it. I really need to ask the rampers what the deal is... but then I'm not sure I even really care.

The aircraft is out doing something to justify its lease payment, as I understand it.

 

[Bernoulli Fan]

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/travel/flights/today/2005-02-10-sky-archivefeb09_x.htm

When news headlines end with a question mark, the answer is often "Probably not."

 

[Kingairer]

When news headlines end with a question mark, the answer is often "Probably not."

I think youre taking it to seriously.

 

[SurferLucas]

TransMeridan, I flew them twice...ATL-SFB-ATL. My one and only flight on the mighty 72 was ATL-SFB, and it was $130/roundtrip...wonder why then didn't last...haha

 

[ERfly]

TransMeridan, I flew them twice...ATL-SFB-ATL. My one and only flight on the mighty 72 was ATL-SFB, and it was $130/roundtrip...wonder why then didn't last...haha

TransMeridian was an ACMI carrier. They took over the Vacation Express stuff from Pace. Vacation Express sold the tickets (or some other entity) and TransMeridian was doing a Public Charter thing.

 

[SmoothLanderJ]

TMA wasn't really strange tho, just another run of the mill medium-range charter company. I think they dabbed into scheduled flying for a little bit.

I don't think they hired any pilots or support staff. Just management, perhaps training pilots in addition to the CP. Doubt any of them are getting paid. In fact, I was told the reason for the delay in certification was the airline couldn't hire staff until certified but also couldn't get staff trained in time to meet the FAAs deadlines for certification. Not sure about the fact behind this.

Here is a strange airline for you. Skybus. No, not the psychadelic Ohio A319 operator. This Skybus:

Yes, that 727 is wearing Sunglasses and smiling with its mouth open in a way that suggests it's chewing Tobacco. The airline was around for a heartbeat in 1993. Why was it so strange, other than the paint scheme? Well, after doing a single public charter from EWR-SXM, they decided "eff this ad hoc stuff we told the investors and our employees we were going to do, let's do scheduled public charters". I will let facts I found on the internet tell the rest of the story. Keep in mind this ambitious airline had but ONE airplane. One. Remember that. Here's what they tried to do:

Full flight schedule with air fares.
Full route map.

And HERE is how that went for them.(The 4 DC-9s comment is wrong, those were not operated by SkyBus)

You can't make this stuff up. And 20 years later, there was this:

Yeah. That.

Actually, while Vision isn't pursuing major scheduled service, they are still flying doing charters and limited scheduled ops.

 

[skyw82]

I am surprised there isn't some start up out of MCO doing some vacation style flying.

 

[derg]

I am surprised there isn't some start up out of MCO doing some vacation style flying.

There's a crap-ton of airlines with heavy lift that do it.

If you started MCO to a major city, the players down there would choke them out with lots of cheap seats.

It's been tried a millionty times.

 

[ChasenSFO]

Actually, while Vision isn't pursuing major scheduled service, they are still flying doing charters and limited scheduled ops.

Well aware, but that was a stab at how that major scheduled service went for them. I took many a trip to SDF during their "hub" days and heard many a story from @JordanD who tossed bags for them...when they showed up. It was pretty hilarious that everytime I would walk past their counter, they had totally different destinations on the board.

 

[ChasenSFO]

I am surprised there isn't some start up out of MCO doing some vacation style flying.

Been tried.

But at the time, Delta and Eastern were flying wide-bodies or high frequency on many of their routes. Today, MCO is even more of a blood bath with several airlines using MCO as a hub/focus city, from major carriers like Delta to LCCs like JetBlue and Southwest, any new-comer would get burried fast. Virgin America couldn't even compete with just UA and JetBlue on SFO-MCO for hardly a year before they dropped it.

The only chance for something like that to work other than the odd charter here and there would be another mainline sub-airline like Delta's Song or Delta Express did in the past.

 

[SmoothLanderJ]

Well aware, but that was a stab at how that major scheduled service went for them. I took many a trip to SDF during their "hub" days and heard many a story from @JordanD who tossed bags for them...when they showed up. It was pretty hilarious that everytime I would walk past their counter, they had totally different destinations on the board.

I STILL work here...and are well aware of how the scheduled service went as I was based in VPS at the time.