New Airline-New Orleans

[atpcliff]

Hi!

Just read an article today about a proposed start-up "Air Gumbo", based in Lafayette and hubbed out of New Orleans starting with 7 737s. It's planned as a low-cost airline "...taking to the skies by the end of the year."

Ralston Champagnie is the local businessman starting it up. I read about it in today's (Sunday) Virginian-Pilot.

Cliff
GRB

 

[Midnight Mike]

Here ya go boys, I did a quick search, resumes away!

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2003/2003-04-03-air-gumbo.htm

Air Gumbo could be airborne by end of year
LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — Planes painted to look like a giant bowl of gumbo — crawfish included — could be taking to the south Louisiana skies by the end of year.
Local businessman Ralston Champagnie announced his plans Wednesday to launch Air Gumbo, a medium-size airline with hub operations in New Orleans and its headquarters in Lafayette.
Air Gumbo's fleet would consist of seven Boeing 737s. The planes would be painted so the forward part of the aircraft is a pale blue and the back looks like a bowl of gumbo, including a giant red crawfish, onions, sausage and red peppers.
The airline would be a low-fare, low-cost and no-frills service that would first serve Louisiana cities and Houston, then branch out to the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America, Champagnie said.
"We are waiting on the war now and looking for funding," said Champagnie, a native of Jamaica who has lived in Lafayette for 20 years. "I feel that we will be up and running by the end of the year."
The first phase will call for about 300 employees, with 100 of them located in Lafayette, he said. The Lafayette employees would be administrative personnel while the remaining jobs in New Orleans would go to pilots, terminal workers and ground crews.
"As the airline grows, so will the number of people in Lafayette and New Orleans," he said.
The eventual plans call for up to 1,000 employees by the second year of operation, again with the most workers in New Orleans.
The 47-year-old businessman said getting the necessary Federal Aviation Administration approval and negotiations with the airports involved for landing rights should take about nine months. Champagnie said he hopes to have those issues completed before the end of the year.
The key to his plans is funding, Champagnie said. Several investors are interested, but he added that his capital raising campaign is just beginning.
Champagnie said the first part of Air Gumbo's plan is to develop links to Louisiana cities including Lafayette and then to Houston as its only out of state destination for now. The second phase, which he said could be completed as early as the summer of 2004, would be to develop destinations in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America.
"We do not want to be too aggressive in our first and second phases," Champagnie said. "We want to establish ourselves and Air Gumbo first."
A presentation has already been made to the state Department of Economic Development and one is planned for the state's Office of Tourism, he said.
Air Gumbo has received resolutions of support from the Lafayette Airport Commission, the Calcasieu Airport Authority and the New Orleans Aviation Board.
Champagnie said he would make a second presentation to the New Orleans Aviation Board since it has new members named by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.
Initial planning for the airline began in 1998, he said.

 

[C601]

Pie in the sly

For every business plan i've recieved and read about a new Airline starting up, and i was paid $1 for every new Start up airline, and the usual funding B/S was in the works i'd be buying myself a nice Jet.

Here is another so called start up airline, i researched and found out about.

http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17401


Any Aviation Invesment banker would be nuts to fund a new Start up during a very low point in the airline industry right.

 

[FlyingSig]

Champagnie said the first part of Air Gumbo's plan is to develop links to Louisiana cities including Lafayette and then to Houston as its only out of state destination for now.


Can't wait to see the payscales for a 737 competing against CoEx RJ's on the LFT-HOU/IAH market. And MSY-LFT in a 737? They're doing this before going to the Bahamas and Mexico? Must be a goldmine of an untapped market.......

 

[Midnight Mike]

C601

Sheesh! You take the fun out of sharing information with people, in my line of work we get
to see start up try & fail, & some actually get off the ground. Been working with JetsGo, a
airline in Canada, they have 9 MD80;s and are looking at staffing for airplanes 10 & 11.

Keep posting the rumors, some of us actually appreciate the effort.

 

[redd]

Cajun Airlines, might be fun, free beads with every flight. I wonder if their theme song will start off," Jambalaya, crawfish pie, filet gumbo".

Hey, you might be a Cajun if:

On line is where you stay during a field sobriety test.
Modem is something done to grass.
You know the meaning of KEEYAW!
If your "other white meat" is frog legs or alligator.
You have had donuts & beer for breakfast.
You consider gravy a beverage.
You let your black coffee cool, and find it has jelled.
You see a Revival Tent and think "Festival."
Your childs favorite bed time story starts with "First you make a roux."
Your boat has more horse power than your car.
You start angel food cake with a roux.
You look at a rice field and know how much gravy is needed to cover it.
You use a Gill net for tennis, volleyball, & badminton.
You Know the difference between Zatarains, Zeringue, & Zydeco.
You greet your friends with" A EEEE"!
Any of your dessert recipes call for Jalapenos.
Watching "Wild Kingdom" inspires you to write a cookbook.
You think a lobster is a crawfish on steroids.
You think boudin, hogshead cheese, & Bud are a bland diet.
You add Tabasco to 5-alarm Texas chili.
To you,the four seasons are onions, celery, bell pepper & garlic.
You have an "Envie" for something instead of a craving.
You pass up a trip to Europe to go to the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival.
You think a 7course meal is a 6 pack & a link of boudin.
You give up tabasco for lent.
You know the four food groups as boiled, broiled, baked seafood & beer.
You can pronounce "Atchafalaya & Delcambre".
Your mom starts the rice and asks "what do you want for dinner?".
Your gourmet recipes include the words"deep fat fried".
You think the Fantastic Four are: John Folse, Paul Prudhomme, Justin Wilson & Tony Chachere.
Grits and Grillades (gree-yads) are you most favorite breakfast.
You use Taso & Andouille(ahn-doo-ee) instead of Ham in your Beans.
Fax is what you lie about to the I.R.S.
Backup is what you do when you see a skunk in the woods

 

[GumbyDarnit]

Redd,

What would the beads be for?

I wanna be a cajun when I grow up. Do you suppose that would be good enough to get hired?

 

[redd]

Gumby,


Heck, if you wore beads (?Mardi Gras, New Orleans??), I'd hire you!

 

[TurboS7]

Hmmmmmmmm, wonder what the passengers would have to do to get beads from the FA's........ Dream on friend. I will bet $100 it doesn't start and if it does it will not last.

 

[redd]

TurboS7,

Dude...it was all in jest, and you are probably right.

Really wasn't even going there, man.

 

[TurboS7]

My context of "dreaming on" was to the guy starting the airline not about the beads. The bead thing would last for a couple of flights then someone would release a video to the press and that would be the end of that. I wore beads when greeting spring break kids going to CUN and ACA this season, the girls liked them, even my wife and daughter. Women have a facination with beads I guess that is how the west was conquered.

 

[SDdriver]

Hey Guys,

Look, maybe it won't get off the ground or not, but don't start ragging on Cajuns from Louisiana. I am from Louisiana and I really don't appreciate the comments about our heritage.

The last thing I would do in a post is start ragging on people because of where they are from. So hey, rag on the airline all you want, but don't pick fun about people from this state and the heritage that they come from.

Hey, it's like this, we only have one of the largest parades in the world that everyone from every other place in the world kills themselves to attend.

I am not looking to get flamed I am just saying don't knock people for being from a certin place in the country. Isn't this suppose to be an information sharing message board, not a place to insult people?

SDdriver...A Proud Cajun!

 

[SDdriver]

By the way guys, Fly safe and I wish you all the best of luck!!

Sd..

 

[JohnDoe]

"Look, maybe it won't get off the ground or not, but don't start ragging on Cajuns from Louisiana. I am from Louisiana and I really don't appreciate the comments about our heritage. "



Oh boo hoo hoo........

 

[SDdriver]

Figures,

Guess I shouldn't have expected anything else..

 

[redd]

As a connoisseur of all things Cajun, to know em, is to love em.

 

[Cardinal]

redd, that list is so anchored in reality! One side of my family is a Creole bunch, and that accurately descirbes one of their crazy evenings. You'd think they could at least skin the chicken before tossing it in, maybe get rid of most of the shells from the bottom feeders, yikes...

 

[Nolife]

Cajun jokes are funny especially if you're from south Louisiana. I hope Gumbo Air makes it, it'd be great to go home for an airline job but I think it won't. Between SWA and CAL the Houston market is saturated.
It also only takes two hours to drive from New Orleans to Lafayette. Airfare would really have to be cheap. As far as Lake Charles, Monroe, Shreveport, Baton Rouge, etc...I don't think the market will support 737's.
This is just my dumb coona$$ opinion, I hope I'm wrong.

 

[JBcrjca]

I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but Air Gumbos odds for starting and/or survival aren't really that great. As Nolife just noted, the cities in LA just can't support intrastate B737 service. Back in the early '90s, L'Express tried a MSY hub serving BTR, LFT, SHV, MLU, LCH, HOU, BPT, MOB, BHM, etc. First they tried Beech 1900s, but those didn't work out too well. Then they downsized to BE-99s, and eventually shut down in the mid-90s. FloridaGulf/Mesa/Air Midwest had also run BE-1900s out of MSY for years as USAir Express serving some of the same cities...they still serve MSY-LIT/SHV. There must not be much of a market down there. Best of luck to them.