San Juan it is!

Independence Air Announces Its First-Ever Caribbean Destination: Airbus Service From Washington Dulles to San Juan, Puerto Rico
Wednesday September 28, 3:33 pm ET


DULLES, Va., Sept. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Low-fare airline Independence Air (Nasdaq: FLYI - News) is announcing new nonstop service from Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) to Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico (SJU) beginning December 16, 2005. Service will be aboard FLYi's 132-passenger Airbus A319 aircraft.

The flight schedule will include one daily roundtrip, departing from Washington at 9:30am and from San Juan at 3:20pm. Tickets for the new nonstop Caribbean flights to/from Washington are available for sale now at http://www.FLYi.com. Tickets for connecting flights from other Independence Air destinations to/from San Juan will be available shortly.

Independence Air Chairman and CEO Kerry Skeen said, "All of us are very excited about introducing San Juan to the Independence Air route network -- just in time for the holidays and the upcoming winter travel season. For our customers in the Washington, DC area as well as all our other FLYi cities, this new service is the perfect solution for everyone who's looking for a fast, easy and inexpensive way to get to the Caribbean."

This deployment is one element in an overall strategic plan designed to increase total A319 departures by serving more Eastern destinations -- including new Airbus flights to Jacksonville, Pittsburgh and Chicago -- while reducing service West of the Mississippi. As of November 29th, Las Vegas will remain as Independence Air's only destination in the West.

Independence Air offers low fares every day with comfortable leather seats and Tender Loving Service(SM). For more information about FLYi, Inc. and Independence Air, please visit our website at FLYi.com.

Independence Air is the low-fare airline that makes travel fast and easy for its customers with a customer-first attitude, innovative thinking and a willingness to challenge the status quo.

Independence Air, the "i" logo mark, FLYi, FLYi.com, and Tender Loving Service are service marks of Independence Air, Inc.




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Source: Independence Air

I like the airline and sure they are still around on December 16th.

Just received that. Kinda nice to see some excitement amongst the gloomy news.

Airbus to Chicago, too? Excellent.

Do they need any special certification to fly to San Juan? (Some type of overwater flying cert?)

The other question - doesn't San Juan break with their attempt to fly shorter trips? SJU is further from IAD than a western location like DEN. (though it is 500 miles shorter than LAS) I wonder if they did some research to find a pent-up demand for SJU? (I can easily see B6 with all the Puerto Ricans in NYC, but DC?)

And the other big question - will the actually survive long enough to start flying this? Or will it by like ATA's launch of service to Gary, Indiana, that, do to Ch. 11 got dropped a few days before it was supposed to start.

I would think they do need life rafts as the normal routing would take you more than 60 miles offshore. So that means overwater training for the flight crews and possible class 2 nav training for the pilots.

As far as demand goes....American flies a daily flight already from IAD and USair does a Saturday service.

UAL will begin daily nonstop service December 18 with TED. They currently have a Saturday/Sunday only mainline service triangle IAD-STT-SJU-IAD, That gets bumped up to four times a week, so two UAL flights, one Ted and one mainline, will depart from SJU-IAD within 50 minutes of each other. Both are on the 320.

DC

PS For some reason though my mind keeps thinking I heard that American is pulling their flight....or was it USAirways?

SJU is a popular cruise port with some large ships based there, and airfare there is pretty high. Probably a good move if they can keep themselves in business long enough.

My first thoughts....will they even be in business long enough to begin service to SJU?

If they are still around come December 16, I'm sure our fellow FTer Carfield will fly on their inaugural service flight and provide a detailed trip report. ^

Not unless you're CHI or NYC where fares hover around 200 all in

I doubt that they would undertake the effort required to start this service if they didn't at least think they had a good chance of making it work.

On a side note: I'm more than a little disturbed by the efforts of some posters to take every single bit of news regarding DH and add in "if they stay in business long enough."

I can't help but notice that most of these posts come from locations like Chicago, IL and from people who have some affiliation/allegiance to a competing airline. The majority of those posts have no informative value other than to bash DH.

I would hope that people would only post when they can ADD to a discussion rather than express their prejudices. I fly UA and I fly DH. I've never felt the need to go into the UA forum and deride their chances for survival on a continuous basis.

I'm not a fan of the thread-crappers here and I hope they consider their aims the next time they post.

Normally planes without overwater certifications must be within 50 nautical miles (NM) from the coast; however, there is an exemption that DH has applied for with the FAA which would allow it to fly 250 NM from shore (I thought it has been posted here previously, but I couldn't find it). That exemption would make it easy to get to SJU and still be 250 NM from shore using the caribbean islands. From what I understand, there is still a tough approval process to get the exemption but it is much less intense than getting the overwater flying certificate. The exemption will also help flights to Florida, because they will have access to the routes that take them more than 50 NM offshore instead of having to stay close to land.

Anyone see a nice intro fare?

um, remember when panam and eastern both started caribbean service?

you betcha! airlines in desperation think cruise/vacation traffic is easy money. when will they learn?

Interesting that there have been a couple posts along this line. The move IS a smart business move. However, instead of just offering rhetoric, let's look at some facts.

DH is currently achieving a paltry average fare on West Coast routes, barely over $100 for 5.5 to 6 hours of flight time and fuel burn. The SJU run will clock in at around 3:45 of flight time / fuel burn. Is anyone else aware of the average fare for the WAS-SJU market? It is around $200.

Now, I know the naysayers will chime in with the old rhyme that DH will only dilute this market and knock down the average fare. However, the lowest fare available at 11 weeks out is $169 according to flyi.com. The logic suggests that these fares will sell and SJU will be a profitable market.


Cheers.