Flyi, we hardly knew ye

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, January 5, 2006

Independence Air — which I believe used to fly to Washington Dulles from SeaTac — has shut down. The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/05/AR2006010502200.html takes a long look at the little airline that couldn’t transform itself from a United Airlines feeder into a East Coast-based low-fare carrier.

Key Quote: “Former Flyi pilot Katie Pribyl, who was furloughed last March, said the airline simply flew too many 50-seat jets — it started with 87 — to too many cities — 47 early on. ‘I remember flying from Dulles to Providence, Rhode Island, one morning in the fall of 2004 and we had zero passengers,’ she said. ‘We couldn’t cancel the flight because we had 20 passengers to bring back from Providence. I remember thinking: We can’t sustain this very long.’”

Here’s a link to the airline’s Web page http://www.flyi.com/ , which includes a letter to customers.

Key Quote: “We are seeking bankruptcy court approval to automatically provide refunds to customers holding reservations on flights occurring after our shutdown of operations on January 5th.”

And here’s a straight-forward report from Reuters on the end of the airline, which notes that the industry goes on, even if the airline doesn’t.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/06/news/companies/independence.reut/

Key Quote: “As Independence Air and its 200 daily flights exited the market, US Airways Group lowered fares on flights to nearly 20 cities.”