Since it began flying a pair of 32-seat Fairchild Dornier 328JETs from its base in Tulsa, Okla., last April, Great Plains Airlines has been promoting plans to establish a new kind of regional airline, dedicated to providing nonstop service from the nation’s heartland to points throughout the U.S. Unfortunately for now former Great Plains CEO Jim Swartz and company, all the talk hasn’t yet eased the apprehension of equity providers, leaving the company ill-equipped to expand beyond the five-city network it serves today.
Great Plains’ prospects for attracting the funding it needs to add airplanes to its fleet–both for markets within an 800-nm radius of Tulsa and points farther afield with longer-range equipment–grew bleaker on September 11, when the financial markets in an instant curtailed the flow of capital to the airline industry. Federal loan guarantees and direct government aid helped boost their confidence in established carriers, but Great Plains faces obstacles that airlines with long records of profitable flying don’t.
