Swift Air buys Direct Air?

[DUATS]

Any truth to this? If so, any idea if they are adding 737's to cover the flying themselves?

 

[Squirrel29]

Why would they do something stupid like that?

 

[DUATS]

Don't know. First heard that Swift was taking over some of their flying, then that they bought Direct Air. Would have direct impact on my employer, which currently has Direct Air contracts. Thought someone might be in the know....

 

[HalinTexas]

Have some friends of mine that just went to Swift. Was told, 2nd hand, that the deal wasn't working out, so they went to Cayman Airways.

 

[RJ Bum]

Heard about the swift air deal also. All I know is I'm currently waiting on gas, direct air stopped paying the fuelers today and didn't notify our company.... gotta love the fuelers asking, "can't you just write us a company check?" Uh... no.....

 

[Flash]

Local news just showed a bunch of stranded pax, said the plane flew out empty back to Florida.

 

[DieselDragRacer]

Direct Air, the charter carrier that has been flying to Florida and South Carolina from the little-used Worcester Regional Airport, canceled all flights Monday night without warning.


Consumers have had a love-hate relationship with Direct Air - which actually has no planes of its own, but leases them from a collection of other carriers. Since service started in 2008, Central Massachusetts residents have had an option to avoid the busier area airports (Direct Air has been the only carrier serving Worcester).



Direct Air only runs routes from Worceter to a handful of locations, primarily Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Sanford, Fla. and Punta Gorda, Fla. Sheduling problems with the leased planes, mechanical issues and frequent complaints about poor communication when something goes awry, have dogged Direct Air.


Passengers on the scattered routes served by Direct Air, from Rockford, Ill., to Niagara Falls to its home airport in Myrtle Beach complained late into the night that they couldn't get an explanation for why every flight Monday evening was canceled. The carrier has no scheduled flights on any of its routes on Tuesdays and the next flight in or out of Worcester isn't scheduled until Thursday.


A growing list of posts on the company's Facebook page from frustrated customers disappeared shortly after midnight on Tuesday. The company did not immediately respond to a request to explain the cancellations and the apparent sanitizing of its Facebook page.


In an interview in November when I discussed with them their cancellation of new service planned for Puerto Rico (due to a claimed unavailability of aircraft to lease), the company's top officials told me of their commitment to the market and were dismayed that Massachusetts consumers had questioned their staying power.
It's question time again.

 

[RJ Bum]

Well it's official...... bankrupt.....

 

[Denizen]

Well it's official...... bankrupt.....

How many operators were they subcontracting with and how many pilots/FA's?

 

[pilotgolfer]

How many operators were they subcontracting with and how many pilots/FA's?

Sky King had 2 planes flying for them...nobody seemed overly concerned. The planes have already been moved to Miami where they apparently have plenty of flying available for them.

Xtra was also flying for Direct Air and this will hurt for them. There is also an MD80 operator that flew for Direct Air...World Atlantic (???maybe).

 

[DUATS]

Sky King had 2 planes flying for them...nobody seemed overly concerned. The planes have already been moved to Miami where they apparently have plenty of flying available for them.

Could have used those planes and crews in MIA last weekend. It's Spring Break for Broward and Dade Counties -and thousands of people wanted to go visit relatives in Cuba. Planes flew until 3 a.m. to get the flights in.

Hopefully there will be more Sky King planes - and less Delta, American, Jet Blue etc - parked at Jose Marti in the future.

 

[flyprop]

The airplanes can finally be used in MIA, w/out having to sublease to Falcon and World Atlantic!

 

[RJ Bum]

World Atlantic had on airplane on it until Swift was up and running in a few weeks... yeah it stings here at Xtra, 10% pay cut already announced... BS if you ask me as we were already planned to go down to one plane for direct next month. The other plane is slated to go to Saipan.

Direct Air is saying they'll now resume ops in MYR on May 15th, who knows who'll be doing that work for them, but we doubt it'll be us.

 

[atpcliff]

USA Jet was doing Direct Air flying out of MYR.

cliff
NRT

 

[RJ Bum]

Usa usually does the winter stuff. sky king and xtra in the summer...

 

[DUATS]

The other plane is slated to go to Saipan.
.

Flying for Freedom Air? Sky King had two planes over there for a while - pulled them back when there wasn't money coming in. Still have one painted with a "Fly Guam" logo. A bit out of place in Miami.

 

[RJ Bum]

Don't think so, for some hotel/resort back and forth to Osaka. I believe we're doing it along with 2 planes provided by Air Atlanta Islandic flown by their crews.

 

[bcp7]

Here's an article for Saipan Air: http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?cat=1&newsID=115933

Air Atlanta Icelandic's fleet plan does not show any 737s.

CMI used to fly from Saipan to Japan before Sep 11,2011. Nobody has stepped in to the market and the economy has suffered accordingly.

 

[RJ Bum]

Thanks for the article. I'm just passing on what we have been told here, and I'm sure it has changed a 1000 times since last week when I was updated.... (Air Atlanta Islandic is a partial owner of Xtra btw). They have a few 800s in mothballs I believe.

N816BC (formerly N776AS) is the bird that is going, maybe they'll send two to Saipan after this direct air crap. But I doubt it since 2 contracts for other parties were just signed.

 

[filejw]

Here's an article for Saipan Air: http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?cat=1&newsID=115933

Air Atlanta Icelandic's fleet plan does not show any 737s.

CMI used to fly from Saipan to Japan before Sep 11,2011. Nobody has stepped in to the market and the economy has suffered accordingly.

A bit of a misstatement in that both JAL and ANA both have gone into Saipan for years but have cut back on frequency mostly because of the economy in Japan. Delta still has flights from Japan but once what was a 744 is now just 757's.