Independence Air Pushes West
Feb 7th, 2005 | By Jared BlankI guess there were two possible outcomes for Independence Air this year: either they would go bankrupt, or they would begin a major expansion into transcon flights. They’ve chosen the latter, apparently. The airline announced new routes from Washington Dulles to San Diego, San Francisco, LAX, Seattle and San Jose with introductory fares at $84 each way. Nice. Their short-to-mid haul regional jet strategy hasn’t quite worked out as planned (January load factors were under 50%), so this expansion (while in their original business plan) is incredibly important to the fledgling airline. Unfortunately for them, JetBlue competes directly on several of these routes.