Via Airlines has pulled the plug on its Little Rock service a little more than a year after the budget airline began flights between the Arkansas capital and Austin, the Texas capital.
The small airline, based in Florida, struggled to attract passengers, keep pilots and bear the costs of operating at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, which it wanted to develop as a hub that included Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field as one of the spokes.
The suspension of the flights came on May 10, but according to emails between airline and airport executives obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the airline struggled for months to pay its bills.
In March, Anita Walker, an airport accountant, informed airline officials that they were two months behind in rent and also had not paid passenger facility charges for January. The latter is the $4.50 fee every passenger pays on an airline ticket. The money goes toward airport maintenance.
By early March, all told, Via owed Clinton National $1,289.56.
A month later, the airline owed $5,872.74, which included a $2,925 security installment the airport required Via to pay.
The airport fielded complaints from two Via customers since January.
"There were a number of customer service issues with Via," Ron Mathieu, the airport's executive director, told members of the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission at its monthly meeting Tuesday. "There were also some payment issues."
The airport wasn't out any money with the airline's departure.
"Unlike many other airports, we did have a deposit so we were able to draw down all the funds that Via owed us through the deposit," Mathieu said.
Donald Bowman, vice president for business development and distribution for Via, expressed disappointment the airline was unable to succeed at Clinton National.
"Via Airlines' decision to suspend the Little Rock-Austin route was painful and unfortunate," he said. "Unfortunately, however, as a smaller, independent regional carrier, our inability to recruit, train and retain pilots, coupled with disproportionately high operating costs at Austin (for a smaller 50-seat regional aircraft) made the route unsustainable in the long term."
Through the first four months of the year, 566 passengers flew the route to the Texas capital, including 163 in April, according to the latest airport passenger statistics.
Bowman didn't rule out a return to Clinton National.
"It is our hope to return to the Little Rock market at some point in the future, though we have no specific plans in place at this time," he said.
Business on 05/22/2019