When it rains, it pours. This is the fourth airline in the last month or so to announce new service from PIE - Fly Mission Air (Sun Wings, Sun Country and Allegiant have just made announcements - most notabley Allegiant with 12 destinations).
"New Air Service from St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport in Florida to Rickenbacker International Airport in Columbus, OH and Indianapolis International Airport in Indiana."
http://www.fly2pie.com/media/Newsroom/Press_Release_FlyMissionAir2.pdf
Interesting the address on the press release is in Hawaii. Anyone know anything about this company?
This brings total destinations out of PIE to 25 (including little SeaCoast Airlines to Key West and Marathon Key).
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RE: Columbus, OH & Indy To PIE On Fly Mission Air
Well I believe it all is coming to an end. Oh well, I guess we are gonna pretend.
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- call911mfc
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RE: Columbus, OH & Indy To PIE On Fly Mission Air
| Quoting Mkirch72 (Thread starter):
Interesting the address on the press release is in Hawaii. Anyone know anything about this company? |
Did a short search on the people on the website and could only find something about the VP, Craig Gomez. He's listed as the president of Honolulu-based Pacific Luxury Air. http://www.pacificluxuryair.com/newsletter.asp
There's also an SBA listing for Pacific Hawaii Lift Corp with the same address.
Looks to be a charter airline trying to get into scheduled service. But, can't find anything else out about the company other than a few articles in '03 and the MySpace page of the 18 year old Director of Marketing And Research.
I usually try to support Hawaiian businesses (grew up there), but don't know enough about this one to say one way or the other......
[Edited 2006-09-28 06:36:30]
RE: Columbus, OH & Indy To PIE On Fly Mission Air
I like the name. Fly Mission Air. It sounds like it was named by someone Japanese and just narrowly beat out Happy Go Air
RE: Columbus, OH & Indy To PIE On Fly Mission Air
I was wondering the same thing. Here is their website
the local press release for Columbus
http://www.dispatch.com/business-sto...tch/2006/09/28/20060928-E1-00.html
A new airline will bring regular passenger service back to Rickenbacker Airport, where several other carriers have failed over the past two years.
Fly Mission Air yesterday said it will begin flying Nov. 3 once daily, Thursday through Sunday, to St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport in Florida.
The nonstop flights on Boeing 737s will fill a void left on that route when Hooters Airlines went out of business at Rickenbacker early this year. Hooters followed Southeast, PanAm, Laker Airways and USA 3000 in ending flights at the airport.
Rickenbacker opened a $12.5 million passenger terminal in 2003 with hopes of creating a niche market built around small carriers offering nohassle flying.
David Whitaker, vice president of business development for the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, attributed the rocky start to difficult times in the airline industry.
"There is a demand for this type of leisure travel and leisure-package product," Whitaker said. "When they were here, airlines like Hooters typically flew planes that were at least 75 percent full."
Whitaker said the authority has continued to seek more regularlyscheduled passenger flights for Rickenbacker, both as a way to enhance service for consumers and as a way to generate income and federal money that’s tied to a certain level of passenger service.
But he said the demise of many companies serving this market has made it harder to find prospects.
"Most of the airlines that have failed have been undercapitalized," said Kevin Kalley, editor of BestFares.com. "The load factors (amount of occu- pied seats) have been pretty good on a lot of these airlines that have come and gone. But you’ve got to have sufficient money to ride out the valleys, not just the peaks of the high travel seasons."
Kalley agreed that price will be a critical factor in determining whether tourists will choose Fly Mission Air.
On www.flymissionair.com, the airline says rates for its Columbus route will start at $208 roundtrip. By comparison, Southwest flies to Tampa, which is about half an hour’s drive to St. Petersburg, for as little as $139 roundtrip with Internet special fares.
"Almost any major carrier has the deep pockets to compete aggressively on price with startups," Kalley said. "Unless you can really offer something extra or unique, travelers, especially leisure travelers, just won’t pay a premium."
Fly Mission Air also recently said it will fly from Indianapolis to St. Petersburg. The Hawaii-based company is affiliated with Aviation Technologies Inc., which also does business as PublicCharters.com.
Ed Ramos, vice president of quality control for Fly Mission Air, said the company expects to add more routes from St. Petersburg, but there are no immediate plans for expansion at Rickenbacker.
He said the company chose Rickenbacker because of its easy access in an attractive market.
"It’s less intimidating. It’s easy to get in and out of, and there’s parking right across the street," Ramos said.
Sandy Balbo, a travel consultant with Carson Wagonlit Travel at Polaris, said yesterday she is not familiar with Fly Mission Air. She also said that price is often the key factor in whether a startup like this will succeed.
"It really comes down to price. People will fly into a different airport sometimes to save $3. It amazes me," Balbo said.
the local press release for Columbus
http://www.dispatch.com/business-sto...tch/2006/09/28/20060928-E1-00.html
A new airline will bring regular passenger service back to Rickenbacker Airport, where several other carriers have failed over the past two years.
Fly Mission Air yesterday said it will begin flying Nov. 3 once daily, Thursday through Sunday, to St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport in Florida.
The nonstop flights on Boeing 737s will fill a void left on that route when Hooters Airlines went out of business at Rickenbacker early this year. Hooters followed Southeast, PanAm, Laker Airways and USA 3000 in ending flights at the airport.
Rickenbacker opened a $12.5 million passenger terminal in 2003 with hopes of creating a niche market built around small carriers offering nohassle flying.
David Whitaker, vice president of business development for the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, attributed the rocky start to difficult times in the airline industry.
"There is a demand for this type of leisure travel and leisure-package product," Whitaker said. "When they were here, airlines like Hooters typically flew planes that were at least 75 percent full."
Whitaker said the authority has continued to seek more regularlyscheduled passenger flights for Rickenbacker, both as a way to enhance service for consumers and as a way to generate income and federal money that’s tied to a certain level of passenger service.
But he said the demise of many companies serving this market has made it harder to find prospects.
"Most of the airlines that have failed have been undercapitalized," said Kevin Kalley, editor of BestFares.com. "The load factors (amount of occu- pied seats) have been pretty good on a lot of these airlines that have come and gone. But you’ve got to have sufficient money to ride out the valleys, not just the peaks of the high travel seasons."
Kalley agreed that price will be a critical factor in determining whether tourists will choose Fly Mission Air.
On www.flymissionair.com, the airline says rates for its Columbus route will start at $208 roundtrip. By comparison, Southwest flies to Tampa, which is about half an hour’s drive to St. Petersburg, for as little as $139 roundtrip with Internet special fares.
"Almost any major carrier has the deep pockets to compete aggressively on price with startups," Kalley said. "Unless you can really offer something extra or unique, travelers, especially leisure travelers, just won’t pay a premium."
Fly Mission Air also recently said it will fly from Indianapolis to St. Petersburg. The Hawaii-based company is affiliated with Aviation Technologies Inc., which also does business as PublicCharters.com.
Ed Ramos, vice president of quality control for Fly Mission Air, said the company expects to add more routes from St. Petersburg, but there are no immediate plans for expansion at Rickenbacker.
He said the company chose Rickenbacker because of its easy access in an attractive market.
"It’s less intimidating. It’s easy to get in and out of, and there’s parking right across the street," Ramos said.
Sandy Balbo, a travel consultant with Carson Wagonlit Travel at Polaris, said yesterday she is not familiar with Fly Mission Air. She also said that price is often the key factor in whether a startup like this will succeed.
"It really comes down to price. People will fly into a different airport sometimes to save $3. It amazes me," Balbo said.
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RE: Columbus, OH & Indy To PIE On Fly Mission Air
Who the hell are these guys????
Sorry I moved from SXM, looking for a new house on Anguilla now!
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- gregarious119
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RE: Columbus, OH & Indy To PIE On Fly Mission Air
| Quoting CMHSRQ (Reply 5): Rickenbacker opened a $12.5 million passenger terminal in 2003 with hopes of creating a niche market built around small carriers offering nohassle flying. |
The problem for Rickenbacker is that CMH is already hassle free enough for most travelers. The Port Authority of Columbus has made CMH a great facility to access, checkin, board, and leave already.
Those small carriers wouldn't have any problem getting runway access at CMH, it's not like it's LHR or anything. While I'm not against trying traffic at Rickenbacker, I just don't think it's worth investing the resources.
RE: Columbus, OH & Indy To PIE On Fly Mission Air
| Quoting CMHSRQ (Reply 5): A new airline will bring regular passenger service back to Rickenbacker Airport, where several other carriers have failed over the past two years. |
Add this carrier to the list of failures at LCK. There isn't going to be any market for them at all especially with JetBlue starting service next week. I see JetBlue flying non-stops to several warm weather destinations from CMH in the very near future....
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- call911mfc
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- DeltaRules
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RE: Columbus, OH & Indy To PIE On Fly Mission Air
| Quoting Panaman (Reply 6): Who the hell are these guys???? |
You read my mind. Never heard of them. Should be interesting to see how they do on LCK-PIE...the last two airlines that ran that route (Southeast, Pan Am v3) both didn't last too long.
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RE: Columbus, OH & Indy To PIE On Fly Mission Air
The Charter Participant agreement stated a list of companies but the aircraft is from Sky King. And the picture was a B737-200! talk about a gas guzzler and old.
If the Director of Marketing is only 18 y/o maybe a High school kid did photo shop it and is using this venture as a virtual reality sim game .
| Quoting Call911mfc (Reply 2): and the MySpace page of the 18 year old Director of Marketing And Research |
| Quoting Call911mfc (Reply 10): Almost looked PhotoShopped on. Neither one was good and a high school art student could have done better..... |
If the Director of Marketing is only 18 y/o maybe a High school kid did photo shop it and is using this venture as a virtual reality sim game .
RE: Columbus, OH & Indy To PIE On Fly Mission Air
The web site doesn't appear to be working now.
RE: Columbus, OH & Indy To PIE On Fly Mission Air
| Quoting Spinkid (Reply 13): The web site doesn't appear to be working now. |
The web site is working... just that the link above has an extra character.
http://www.flymissionair.com/
Try this one.
RE: Columbus, OH & Indy To PIE On Fly Mission Air
WOW...That is one GREAT website!!! My favorite part is when the B717 with the BAE146 nose is flying over Diamond Head. Are they going to fly there from LCK?
I truly do wish them all the best, but why would you fly them over WN when the price seems to be higher?
I truly do wish them all the best, but why would you fly them over WN when the price seems to be higher?
Reno Air - The Biggest Little Airline in the World
RE: Columbus, OH & Indy To PIE On Fly Mission Air
| Quoting RW717 (Reply 15): WOW...That is one GREAT website!!! My favorite part is when the B717 with the BAE146 nose is flying over Diamond Head. Are they going to fly there from LCK? I truly do wish them all the best, but why would you fly them over WN when the price seems to be higher? |
I just paid $125 RT for SRQ-CMH on DL
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