Hi

This thread is a tribute to independence Air, opinion on the airline is divided but the majority is good so please leave your messages.

independence Air was a great airline it was innovative, friendly and according to the polls soared in popularity. Nicknamed Indy and with the slogan 'tender loving service' many admired her.

Here is a letter sent out to customers found on the website:

'Today is a sad day for Independence Air.

Today we must announce that we will be ceasing scheduled service operations this Thursday evening, January 5. The financial pressures in the industry have prevailed. We have run out of time.

It has been an amazing 18 months. We set out to challenge the status quo and to re-set your expectations about air travel. We set out to introduce you to lower fares and a new level of service delivered by employees who care. Currently ranked #2 in customer satisfaction among all US airlines, we are proud that we did indeed earn your respect and loyalty. We are proud that we built a brand so universally praised by over 8 million customers. We are proud of the mark we have made.

Customers with reservations whose trips are completed between now and Thursday evening should expect the same great service for which we have become known.

Additionally, we are seeking bankruptcy court approval to automatically provide refunds to customers holding reservations on flights occurring after our shutdown of operations on January 5th. No refunds will be offered for free tickets or vouchers.

Finally, we will be contacting those customers with itineraries that start before and end after our shutdown (including those customers who have already commenced their travel) to offer them the opportunity to change their return reservations to a flight on one of our remaining days of operation if possible. Customers can immediately change travel dates on their own by visiting the “Change Itinerary” section of our website, FLYi.com. All change fees will be waived when travel dates are changed via our website, but a difference in fare could be incurred (unfortunately, this results from a website process that cannot be disabled). Alternatively, if moving the return trip to one of our remaining operating days is not feasible, we are also seeking bankruptcy court approval to refund any amounts paid by these customers for their return reservations.

Please be aware that under section 145 of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (November 19, 2001) Congress has obligated U.S. airlines to offer stand-by transportation to passengers holding un-refunded tickets for airlines that have ceased operations due to insolvency or bankruptcy. The Act stipulates that passengers must make their request to carriers serving the same routes as the bankrupt carrier and must do so within 60 days of the cessation of service. The U.S. Department of Transportation has ruled that airlines who offer the stand-by transportation may charge $50 one-way per person to cover related expenses.

Today is a sad day for Independence Air. Today is a sad day for our customers who have gotten used to tender loving service and paying less for air travel. We will miss serving you. Thank you for your vigorous support.'

Today is a sad day for Independence Air.

Today we must announce that we will be ceasing scheduled service operations this Thursday evening, January 5. The financial pressures in the industry have prevailed. We have run out of time.

It has been an amazing 18 months. We set out to challenge the status quo and to re-set your expectations about air travel. We set out to introduce you to lower fares and a new level of service delivered by employees who care. Currently ranked #2 in customer satisfaction among all US airlines, we are proud that we did indeed earn your respect and loyalty. We are proud that we built a brand so universally praised by over 8 million customers. We are proud of the mark we have made.

Customers with reservations whose trips are completed between now and Thursday evening should expect the same great service for which we have become known.

Additionally, we are seeking bankruptcy court approval to automatically provide refunds to customers holding reservations on flights occurring after our shutdown of operations on January 5th. No refunds will be offered for free tickets or vouchers.

Finally, we will be contacting those customers with itineraries that start before and end after our shutdown (including those customers who have already commenced their travel) to offer them the opportunity to change their return reservations to a flight on one of our remaining days of operation if possible. Customers can immediately change travel dates on their own by visiting the “Change Itinerary” section of our website, FLYi.com. All change fees will be waived when travel dates are changed via our website, but a difference in fare could be incurred (unfortunately, this results from a website process that cannot be disabled). Alternatively, if moving the return trip to one of our remaining operating days is not feasible, we are also seeking bankruptcy court approval to refund any amounts paid by these customers for their return reservations.

Please be aware that under section 145 of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (November 19, 2001) Congress has obligated U.S. airlines to offer stand-by transportation to passengers holding un-refunded tickets for airlines that have ceased operations due to insolvency or bankruptcy. The Act stipulates that passengers must make their request to carriers serving the same routes as the bankrupt carrier and must do so within 60 days of the cessation of service. The U.S. Department of Transportation has ruled that airlines who offer the stand-by transportation may charge $50 one-way per person to cover related expenses.

Today is a sad day for Independence Air. Today is a sad day for our customers who have gotten used to tender loving service and paying less for air travel. We will miss serving you. Thank you for your vigorous support.
Today is a sad day for Independence Air.

Today we must announce that we will be ceasing scheduled service operations this Thursday evening, January 5. The financial pressures in the industry have prevailed. We have run out of time.

It has been an amazing 18 months. We set out to challenge the status quo and to re-set your expectations about air travel. We set out to introduce you to lower fares and a new level of service delivered by employees who care. Currently ranked #2 in customer satisfaction among all US airlines, we are proud that we did indeed earn your respect and loyalty. We are proud that we built a brand so universally praised by over 8 million customers. We are proud of the mark we have made.

Customers with reservations whose trips are completed between now and Thursday evening should expect the same great service for which we have become known.

Additionally, we are seeking bankruptcy court approval to automatically provide refunds to customers holding reservations on flights occurring after our shutdown of operations on January 5th. No refunds will be offered for free tickets or vouchers.

Finally, we will be contacting those customers with itineraries that start before and end after our shutdown (including those customers who have already commenced their travel) to offer them the opportunity to change their return reservations to a flight on one of our remaining days of operation if possible. Customers can immediately change travel dates on their own by visiting the “Change Itinerary” section of our website, FLYi.com. All change fees will be waived when travel dates are changed via our website, but a difference in fare could be incurred (unfortunately, this results from a website process that cannot be disabled). Alternatively, if moving the return trip to one of our remaining operating days is not feasible, we are also seeking bankruptcy court approval to refund any amounts paid by these customers for their return reservations.

Please be aware that under section 145 of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (November 19, 2001) Congress has obligated U.S. airlines to offer stand-by transportation to passengers holding un-refunded tickets for airlines that have ceased operations due to insolvency or bankruptcy. The Act stipulates that passengers must make their request to carriers serving the same routes as the bankrupt carrier and must do so within 60 days of the cessation of service. The U.S. Department of Transportation has ruled that airlines who offer the stand-by transportation may charge $50 one-way per person to cover related expenses.

Today is a sad day for Independence Air. Today is a sad day for our customers who have gotten used to tender loving service and paying less for air travel. We will miss serving you. Thank you for your vigorous support.

The airline's livery was well liked too . . .

View Large View Medium Photo © Dan Brownlee

View Large View Medium Photo © Josh Akbar - NYCAviation

View Large View Medium Photo © Kyle Donagher

View Large View Medium Photo © Kyle Donagher

So here ends my tribute to independence Air, all those that flew her will know that this is a very sad day for the industry. All Staff who were made redundant by FLYI I give you my condolences and I hope you find a job soon! Goodbye Indy we will miss you. . .

The last flight is DH1777 HPN-IAD

Please Leave Your Tributes Good or Bad to Indy Below

Thankyou

RIP independence Air

DSA>>>

Nice posting, I like your summary. I just want to hear why Kerry Skeen rejected everyone's input as to the airline and how it was run. So far I have seen few apologies or reasons why he wouldn't listen to others.

Ord747Cle

Flyi was a nice airline, only flew them once. They had cute celebrity safety announcements and friendly staff. The hot "towels" were a nice touch.

BTW Dsa, why did you post the farewell letter 3 times in your initial post?  

Its the staff you have to feel sorry for. Can't be a nice start to the new year for them. Any chance that if some of Independence Air's assets are sold, some staff could keep their jobs?

My utmost sympathy goes out to FlyI employees, you folks worked through it and tried to make it work, I commend you for what you good folks did. I wish you good luck in your future endevors. I'll miss these little CRJ's at BDL, wish I was able to get em on film... Good luck guys, I'll miss ya.

I never had the chance to fly them them but I sure followed them during their brief existence. I wanted so badly to see them succeed; if nothing else than to spite UA.

I hope those people that worked for them out of love for flying land on their feet and perhaps even one day have the chance to start a new carrier and pick up where Independence left off.

When I was in Washington D.C. last week I went spotting at IAD most of the time and really got to like the Fly I livery on the CRJ-200 and A319. I also got to get close to two parked CRJs by the Fly I hangar and found them to be beautiful birds.

I will truly miss the beautiful Fly I paint scheme and seeing there planes grace the sky..


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Photo © Brian Futterman - NYCAviation

Quoting Dsa (Thread starter): Today is a sad day for Independence Air.

This statement was repeated at least four times in your summary, Dsa.

his whole spiel is basically repeated three times...

Quoting Humberside (Reply 3): Its the staff you have to feel sorry for. Can't be a nice start to the new year for them. Any chance that if some of Independence Air's assets are sold, some staff could keep their jobs?

I asked this in a different thread, but I didn't get any response. If an airline picks up a large number of jets (like Mesa) I would think there would be some employment options, unless Mesa is way over staffed at the moment. Good luck to all of the FlyI employees. It seems as if most of them here are very proud of their company, and they seem to care very much about customer service. I think with that attitude, it won't be hard to get another job, but that is coming from an outsider..(Don't work in the industry)

Quoting Humberside (Reply 3): Its the staff you have to feel sorry for. Can't be a nice start to the new year for them. Any chance that if some of Independence Air's assets are sold, some staff could keep their jobs?

Absolutely. Best wishes to the staff at a quick "bounce back".

At this point, unless I'm missing something, the at this point the assets (and did Independence actually own anything? My understanding was the majority of their fleet was leased) are wholly distinct from the employees... If some airline our of the kindness of its collective heart wanted to offer employment to the displaced iAir folks, but there would be no requirement (and indeed, I would assume it would be pretty tough-- I assume in order to do things properly, they would need a copy of the senority lists, etc.)

I walked by Independence Air's ticket counter at DTW on their first day of service (I can't remember if I was doing DL-->NW or NW-->DL) and they looked so hopeful; about a month ago I watched an Independence Air flight being boarded at LAS (with one of the most professional, attractive, and closest-to-my-age gate agents I've come across)... Perhaps they started too agressively, perhaps their fares were too low, perhaps their fleet was too expensive, in any regard, It's too bad they couldn't pull it off.

Lincoln

some important questions -

1) What happens to the planes? Will Air Wisconsin and Mesa get to buy them for pennies on the dollar? (obviously I don't mean this literally, what I'm asking is - who stands to gain?)

2) Gate slots - who gets them? Does this mean less pressure on the already overloaded G councourse at IAD?

3) Does this mean that IAD will see a major drop in its ranking on the list of busiest airports in the US? Predictions?

4) Will United raise its fares out of Dulles now that it is once again the only game in town?

thanks..

and goodbye FLYi

If they had more A319s and many many less CRJs it would have been a bit easier to stay in business. To run an airlines with mostly CRJs is asking for trouble, now if they were CRJ-700 then it would have been better as well!!!

They will be missed, at least by the consumer! I personally liked their bubble jet livery as well!

Hi

Keep the tributes coming it would be great if we got loads of posts to say farewell to Indy as she was respected by many!

'Today is a sad day for Independance Air' is what was constantly repeated in the letter sent to customers that I inserted from their website on the topic.'

KEEP UM COMING!

Thanks

DSA>>>

Sorry that flyi went away. You will be greatly missed.

The first day of Airbus A319 operation, as well as SAN inaugural flights will always be sweet memories.

I hope employees will find a new job soon.

At least fly i puts up a good fight.

Carfield

Service was great, staff was great, planes were neat...
I thought I had found my airline, once for all, and then it's gone!!!!
I'm happy I was lucky at least to get to fly the A319 (N811BR) on a red-eye segment: LAX-IAD, on Sep. 17, 2005.

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Photo © Justin Idle

All good memories, and lots of fun times with the friendly crew. Wish them luck.

Its a sad day for my friends at Independence Air, I wish them well, and Delta Global actually came in to try to take a bunch of people recently (they handle UAX at IAD and actually missed 1500 bags on January 2nd) That is very bad performance for United. while DH had one of the lowest in mishandled bags.

Wish them well. Perhaps someday Independence Air will return with a vengeance

Quoting Malaysia (Reply 18): Its a sad day for my friends at Independence Air, I wish them well, and Delta Global actually came in to try to take a bunch of people recently (they handle UAX at IAD and actually missed 1500 bags on January 2nd) That is very bad performance for United. while DH had one of the lowest in mishandled bags.

Malaysia,

I know you are a homer for DH but your facts on the bags are skewed. DGS has had better transfer numbers than when ACA was operating as UAX. Also, if you were at ACA you would recall that UAL mainline ramp was required to transfer the UAX bags for about the last year of ACA ops due to poor ACA bag handling performance.

The loss of your carrier while unfortunate for you should not be used as a smear campaign against a carrier that soundly defeated you in the marketplace.

I flew with Indy once .... 3 weeks ago It was just a short flight from LGA-IAD but it was on time, the staff (inlcuding the pilot) were incredibly friendly and light hearted, it really was a breath of fresh air.


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Photo © Jason Whitebird


As we took off from LGA, I remember thinking to myself, I hope the rumours aren't true. Sadly they are and now the worst has happened.

By coincidence, there was a commercial insurer called Independent in the U.K. until about 2002 when it went bust - maybe it's something in the name?

  

Good luck to the wonderful staff in finding careers elsewhere .... and take that refreshing attitude to some of those other miserable airlines out there!!

Guess I'll remember Indy as an experiment that showed that 50 seat RJ's can't be used for an LCC operation.

Really was an ill conceived and stupid business plan and I know many on this forum questioned it from the get go. 7 daily flights (at one point) between cities like LAN and IAD? The only surprise is the inevitable shut down didn't come even sooner.....

Best wishes to all those who have lost their jobs.

[Edited 2006-01-04 16:10:18]

I flew Independence once last summer IAD-SAN roundtrip. Had a very nice trip crew was very friendly.Too bad to see them go under. I hope they can get better jobs.

Quoting Tjwgrr (Reply 21): Really was an ill conceived and stupid business plan and I know many on this forum questioned it from the get go. 7 daily flights (at one point) between cities like LAN and IAD? The only surprise is the inevitable shut down didn't come even sooner.....

While Tjwgrr's comments may be a little harsh, I believe the sentiment is true. The idea that they could spin off from UA and make a profit as a LCC using high cost equipment was just not going to work in the long run. The A319s were very necessary but they came too little too late.

I flew on FlyI once and I thought that service-wise, the airline was very good. Maybe I was a sucker for the hot towels and mint before landing! Seriously, I thought the crew in the air and on the ground at IAD were very good. But the writing has been on the proverbial wall for a long time regarding the airline's ill health. It figured they'd struggle through the holiday season and then probably not survive the January trough. Too bad. As usual, the ones who get hurt the most are the ones who had the least to do with the airline's demise.

I workerd at ACA for 2 years they were my first employer as an Aircraft Mechanic, I loved it there until they closed LGA and i went to HP,, well i hope the best for those who were left... CHeers

I flew Indy Air 8 times (4 CRJ, 4 A319) and thoroughly enjoyed all of my flights.
Their staff put forth great effort and did all they could to be successful.
I'll remember the cute recorded safety announcements (Mary Matalin/James Carville, Chuck Berry, etc) and the disposable hot towels. On one flight from ORD-IAD I was the only revenue passenger on a CRJ. The F/A broke out the snack cart and we sat and talked and snacked all the way to Dulles. On approach to IAD she asked me what level of lighting I wanted in the cabin and she dimmed the lights so I could get the best night view. I felt like it was my own private jet -- 49 empty blue seats, just me and the F/A. I will miss Independence Air, but then I miss them all -- Eastern, Pan Am, TWA, and so many others. They've all been a part of my life as an airline hobbyist. We can always hope for better times ahead. Farewell DH.

Ode to Flyi..

You were done the day your Marketing and P&R guy got up on stage and shed a tear in front of 300 or so airline and airport consultants a month before you took flight over your "independence". I'm certain a few have not taken you seriously since.

RIP

[Edited 2006-01-04 18:11:41]

It's sad to see them go. Best wishes to all the indy family  

I always wanted to fly Indi....really bad! I booked my mum and her friends on a flight last year, and she loved the service...truly sad to see them go.

Its so sad; an airline like this could have revolutionized the industry by setting standards and bringing the class, once synonymous with air travel, back as a reality and not a just a lost legacy. In a way, it almost gives the impression that one just cant fight the big mean corporations, and that conformity is the only safe route. Granted FlyI did have bad management, the average person sees this situation as: "Well, they wanted to do something good, they took on the big-dogs, attempted to change air travel for the good, and lost. The moral is, don't bother!". Airlines that take chances like this should be rewarded, but somehow they almost always loose.....so sad. I wish all ex-employees the best of luck in relocation and truly hope that this new year brings about new and more positive opportunities: With every door that closes, another opens.

RIP Fly-I
Mike

Quoting BA747400 (Reply 28): an airline like this could have revolutionized the industry by setting standards and bringing the class, once synonymous with air travel, back as a reality and not a just a lost legacy.

Huh? I'm not sure I follow... how was Independence Air "revolutionary" again? How was flying them synonymous with air travel in days gone by (except for the RJs, which have similar capacities to DC-4s, etc.)??

The market has prevailed once again. You can't make money selling seats at $49/seat between ATL and IAD.

Sorry for the employees but free markets take no prisoners.

Quoting Richierich (Reply 29): Huh? I'm not sure I follow... how was Independence Air "revolutionary" again? How was flying them synonymous with air travel in days gone by (except for the RJs, which have similar capacities to DC-4s, etc.)??

Independence Air flew clean and classy planes with fantastic services such as free hot-towels, no "overselling", a frequent flyer program with no black-out dates, a "no lost baggage" guarantee, and above all, an incredibly friendly group of employees. I have yet to find anyone that would prefer service levels of legacy carriers over DH.....that, in itself, is revolutionary. By setting the bar higher with services that should be expected by air traveler's, it forces others to do the same. Now-a-days, this countries airlines are playing the "how low can we go in service" game, and its getting ridiculous. Simply put, the industry needed this airline to make everyone realize that air travel SHOULD include a freakin pillow or a snack for free. Sadly, bad management seems to be attracted to the airline industry regardless of the business plan.

In regards to past air travel: There was a day, not too long ago, where people would get dressed up for a flight. Flying was prestigious, it wasn't a nessesity for a vacation, it was the best part of it. Flight attendants were held in high regard, and took their job very seriously; phenomenal service was just expected. Pilots were respected so greatly, you cant even imagine.....it was a whole different world. Indi offered a product that would bring part of that magic back; offering a product that would change how people viewed air travel; something to look forward too instead of something you dreaded.

I hope you understand where i'm coming from...........

Mike

My only tribute goes out to the employees who had to endure mistake after fatal mistake by the inept management of this airline.

The management KNEW their plan was bogus and doomed to fail from Day 0. I cannot think of ONE business analyst who said this could work. Nothing they did made any sense, and all they accomplished was screwing over some of the best airline employees in the industry, all while lying to their faces until the very end. I feel for the employees, but FLYi was a virus on this industry, and I hope every last member of the management team never has the chance to screw over another company again.

Hello, flew DH three times, while working for them in LAX and SJC. I flew
LAS-IAD on N807BR
SJC-IAD on N807BR the very last flight from SJC!
IAD-JFK N637BR

It was a great experience, took lots of photos on the ramp, nice airplanes and nice confortable seats. I will miss DH and the heppy bag program, it will not be forgotten!

Airbrasil
LAS

Truly Sad News  

Always bad to see an airline go down. I feel sorry for the employees. Good luck to you all.



Lee

I'm not sad for the airline by itself, but for the hundreds of unemployed that are under uncertainty.