The new discount-fare incarnation of Atlantic Coast Airlines known as Independence Air on June 16 launched revenue service with the first cadre of Bombardier CRJs reassigned from ACA’s soon-to-be-defunct United Express operation. Designed to avoid competing directly with ACA’s remaining United Express flights and place Independence Air on solid footing at a time the investment community watches intently for signs of weakness, the first wave of routes from Washington Dulles International Airport to Newark, N.J., Chicago, Raleigh-Durham, N.C., Boston and Atlanta performed as advertised during their first days of operation. How the new airline manages to sustain itself after the likes of Southwest, JetBlue and United boost pricing pressure will take much longer to gauge.
Last month Atlantic Coast withdrew 30 of its 87 CRJ200s from the United Express system, redeploying the 50-seat jets on nine routes ranging in frequencies from five to nine per day and offering Web-based fares from $39 to $79, rising to a high of $169 for non-restricted tickets. Of course, at an optimistic seat-mile cost of 15.8 cents on a 350-mile trip for the CRJ, a more intriguing test of Independence Air’s business plan will not only come on the routes it flies head-to-head with Southwest and JetBlue, but on such comparatively small-market destinations as Huntsville, Ala., and Portland, Maine.
