Direct Air

September 10, 2008 – 2:46 pm

Direct Air has been in the news the last couple days as it announces a slew of new, slightly bizarre routes.  I found the website to be a bit amusing with contradicting information on whose airplane you’d actually be flying on.  Mark Ashley found the site equally entertaining, especially the spelling of the cities on its route map.

All kidding aside, I’m a bit curious about what DirectAir, formerly Myrtle Beach Direct Air , thinks it is up to. Here’s a bit of conjecture:

  1. Plane Choice : I don’t really understand leasing planes from Virgin America and JetBlue.  I guess it is possible that, based on the need to cut flights, Virgin and JetBlue have some extra planes laying around and thus they are coming cheaper than usual.  But, I highly doubt these are the least expensive leases available.  And, thus, there could very well be some thinking over at DirectAir that they’ll gain additional customers with the relatively new planes and on-board entertainment.  I just don’t see this working. People in Kalamazoo and Niagara Falls are flying because of location and price.  That’s about it.
  2. Route Map: Sure, no competition is good competition.  Allegiant makes money by being the only air service in 95 out of its 103 markets (as of YE 2007).  But, it also does not make great sense to go after Allegiant’s scraps, either.  Allegiant didn’t give Worcester a year and ended service after 9 months.  Plus, they’ll be semi-competiting with Allegiant for traffic in places like Allentown.  Allegiant serves Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale and Tampa.  Direct Air is taking a shot with Punta Gorda, just north of Ft. Meyers.  Skybus also flew A320s there and it didn’t work for them (not the best comparison but more of a point of reference.)
  3. Myrtle Beach : So this business seems to be working for them and they want to expand.  It is hard to directly compare them with another carrier as they are more of a hybrid between Allegiant and USA 3000.  They are trying to establish Punta Gorda as another focus city.  Ft. Meyers/Naples is essentially unguarded terittory, but it also makes you wonder why no one else thinks its a good idea to establish a base there.

Either way, it’ll be interesting to see what happens.

  1. 4 Responses to “Direct Air”

  2. Great comments!!
    I pasted them on my blog. If you mind, let me know and I will remove.

    Thanks

    Bill

    By Bill Randell on Sep 11, 2008

  3. We flew Direct Air last month, and it was very pleasant, but wish they would fly direct to Akron-Canton. Was not easy getting to Akron via Columbus, and return flight thru Pittsburgh.

    By Alberta on Nov 5, 2008

  4. Punta Gorda direct from Wormtown? At this $$,
    then subtract travel costs + time to fly out of Hartford, Green, or Logan? If your destination is anywhere south of St.Pete, and north of Naples the only thing that comes close is to have T. Branson pick you up at your house and take you along on his own jet to Ft. Myers.

    You can also scurry up to the Mouses House for a few days, then fly back out of Sanford for the same price! There’s only hitch: Once you get to PGD @ 8:11 pm and they shake you out of the plane, you’ll be lucky to find a bicycle for rent. Hertz will gladly loan you a roller skate for $450.00/wk. Budget, down the road a piece, is closed Sundays.(Their website says on 11/23, they will be open Sunday until 2:00 pm. To whomever is running Budget: HE-LO-O!?

    MCB

    By M. Carl Boll on Nov 9, 2008

  5. My 84 year old father had to take an emergency flight up to Allentown to go to his brother’s funeral. My father said he was pleasantly surprised on how clean and efficient the Punta Gorda airport was, how friendly and helpful the airport workers were and also said the Direct Air flight was terrific. A positive experience dealing with a negative situation. He said he would use the airport again and highly recommends Direct Air.

    By Kathleen Kelly on Mar 14, 2009

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