Go ahead and file this one under ‘New Airline Ideas that will Definitely Work’
The Lincoln Journal Star is reporting that a new airline startup, Red Way, will start flying from Lincoln, NE to seven destinations beginning in June. The initial plan is to fly between Lincoln and Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Las Vegas, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Nashville, and Orlando with 2x weekly service.
To put this into perspective, United Express is the only airline that currently serves the airport with flights to Denver and Chicago-O’Hare 3x daily. Delta and Allegiant previously served the airport but pulled out in 2022 and 2008 respectively.
The new service will be operated by GlobalX, a charter airline that utilizes Airbus A320 aircraft. Though the slights will only operate twice weekly, this still seems like a ton of capacity to dump onto these routes. The airline will operate under an ULCC format where passengers will be charged extra for food, drinks, baggage and seating assignments. Fares are expected to start around $59.
The service will be bolstered by a $3 million dollar Airline Incentive Fund from the Lincoln Airport Authority which will act as a revenue guarantee. The Airport Executive Director, David Haring, is hopeful that the amount of money needed will be “minimal”, though someone needs to remind him that hope is not a strategy.
Also, based on the timing of the flights, it appears the airline will try and operate everything using just one aircraft. Flying these routes with one aircraft to places like Dallas, Austin, and Atlanta, which can have severe weather during the summer, on one hour turns seems on the tight side and may lead to delays.
While it is always exciting to see a new airline enter the market, I’m skeptical that we will see them around long term.
Is anyone other than me considering on flying them just for fun?
