On Monday morning, the future for Jet America looked pretty grim, but we were holding out hope that John Weikle could get his airline aloft. But after Skybus went down in flames, he decided to pull the plug on the new project.
Charleston Area Alliance President Matt Ballard says fundraising for the project has stopped, and the Daily Mail quotes Weikle as saying checks are going back to investors. That's the end of Jet America for now.
Meanwhile Ballard says a lack of leadership on national energy policy is what's killing airlines these days, not a bogus business model:
I think all of the investors here in the local area still believe in John Weikle's ultra-low cost carrier model. In fact, there were many who despite the Skybus announcement wanted to move forward...I believe John will make this model work in the US; it works for Air Asia and Ryanair.
Skybus plans to file for bankruptcy in Delaware today, and that has a lot of people in West Virginia nervous. How's that? The founder of the 'bus, John Weikle, is now at work on Jet America, an ultra-LCC set to take off from Charleston in 2009.
Among those sweating is Yeager Airport Director Rick Atkinson:
[The Skybus shutdown] is like throwing a wet blanket on plans for Jet America...I don't see how we could go forward with this model.
Also worried is at least one local business leader--who's now frozen some of that seed money his group pledged to Jet America:
There's no way we would have done this if I didn't think Skybus was successful.
For his part, Jaunted pen palMatt Ballard hasn't given up on the idea of Jet America. But we have to wonder: Does it count as an airline shuttering if the carrier never took a flight?
Though it's still a long way off, more details are leaking out about the planned ultra-low cost carrier Jet America. At present, we'll be waiting until at least 2009 to see some actual planes.
Until then, The Charleston Gazette has the details on what to expect:
The paint scheme--called the aircraft livery--features a tail with a blue background and white stars. The rest of the back-end of the plane will be red, with a white outline. The airline's name...and website will also be on the side of the plane.
While the model of plane is still under wraps, the aircraft will hold at least 120 passengers, one investor said.
As far as we can tell, president John Weikle, pictured, is still shopping around for a $40 million investment to help things along. And Matt Ballard--who we spoke with recently--says destinations and more information should be released soon.
We're obsessed with the idea of Jet America, the new ultra low cost carrier that could start flying in Charleston, West Virginia. But we don't really know that much about it. So instead of just speculating, we decided to actually ask someone who knows what he's talking about.
We got in touch with Matt Ballard, the President and CEO of the Charleston Area Alliance, a non-profit development group that chipped in some seed money to get Project New Horizons off the ground. Matt was bound by a confidentiality agreement and SEC regulations, but he did manage to illuminate some things for us.
One biggie: You won't see this airline till 2009 at the earliest.
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