The biggest take-away from the Air Florida story is the route map itself.

air florida

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two years ago can you imagine that an airline start-up would be listing Worcester as one of their eight focus cities.  We owe JetBlue a big thank you for putting us back on the map, with their daily flights to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale out of Worcester.

Since this story broke on the Worcester Herald, there have been concerns expressed that this company is a public charter and may be another “Direct Air”.    Obviously that is a concern for all  of us and we need to ensure that steps are taken to avoid the Direct Air disaster specifically:

  • Only tickets sales will be allowed which are required to go into escrow.
  • Audited financial statement quarterly.
  • A bond much larger then the $200,000 bond that Direct Air established.
  • No vouchers will be allowed to be sold since they are not required to go into escrow.

If we do not like what we hear, we will be the fist to warn people not to fly Air Florida as we did numerous times on our old blog with Direct Air.  We never flew them and predicted their demise in November, 2011, check out the post that they would be out of business by Ground Hog’s Day of 2012 (February 2, 2012).  They went out of business in March of 2012.

To those people who would rather see a legacy carrier to destinations like Chicago, can we remind you that one year ago we had no air service at all!!!  Right now we have two daily flights to popular leisure destinations and you really think a legacy carrier will be next??    We have come along way since last year with JetBlue and we hope to keep adding service, but we need to install the  CAT III landing system and continue walking before we can run.

For now lets:

  1. Be excited that Air Florida thinks this highly of Worcester
  2. Do our homework to make sure this company is not another “Direct Air”
  3. Be ready to support them assuming all checks out

Lastly, we believe that if Air Florida comes to Worcester:

  • 3 flights per day to St Pete (Tamps) and Daytona during the peak season
  • Two flights during off season
  • No way they will consider Fort Lauderdale with JetBlue
  • None of the other cities seem like routes that have a high demand.

Stay tuned!!!