JetAmerica dumps Rockford flight plan

By Thomas V. Bona

BusinessRockford.com

JetAmerica has scrapped its plans to fly from Chicago Rockford International Airport.

The airline’s CEO said today it has cut Rockford, and the planned flights to New Jersey and Baltimore, because the company’s original plans were “too aggressive.” The airline will instead focus on flights to the New York City area from Toledo, Ohio; Lansing, Mich.; and South Bend, Ind., as well as other routes.

CEO John Weikle said Toledo will be the airline’s hub because it’s a larger city with three Fortune 500 companies that could fill flights to New York, while Lansing and South Bend remain on the roster because they were close to Toledo, so it would be easier to shuttle planes between them.

“We had to take one city out of the mix,” Weikle said. He said the airline will take another look at adding Rockford during its first year of operation.

JetAmerica started as Air Azul, a Florida-based airline that planned flights from Rockford to the New York area and Baltimore in June. But the airline abruptly scrapped its name and delayed its launch at least a month.

Weikle joined after the Air Azul name was scrapped. He was the founder of ultra-low-cost carrier Skybus, though he left the company shortly after it took off. Weikle brought the name JetAmerica, which he had been using in plans for an airline after leaving Skybus.

Other airports that retained JetAmerica offered extra incentives. Toledo will provide $600,000 in marketing funds and more than $300,000 in media donations and in-kind services, while South Bend offered $125,000 in marketing dollars and a $52,000 one-month subsidy.

They also waived airport-imposed fees for about a year. Rockford did the same, and offered a more modest amount of marketing money — though rolled into its general advertising plan. It did not offer any subsidies.

Weikle said the incentives were not the reason JetAmerica chose not to include Rockford.

Contact staff writer Thomas V. Bona at 815-987-1343 or tbona@rrstar.com.