Son of Skybus bites the dust

Before even getting off the ground, JetAmerica, which promised fares as low as $9, said that is suspending operations and plans to refund passengers who have bought tickets.

This is the explanation offered on the company website by CEO John Weikle, who was the founder of now-defunct discount airline Skybus:

"We are reluctantly suspending our public charter operations effective today," said John Weikle, CEO, who has been with the company since April. "Finalizing the slots required to support our charter program at Newark has taken longer than expected and we have decided to suspend our operations in order to refocus on different markets. We still strongly believe that there is an unmet need for affordable air service to secondary markets and we look forward to offering this option again in the near future.

JetAmerica, which had delayed its launch to Aug. 14, planned to initially serve five other cities beside Newark: Toledo, Ohio, Lansing, Mich., South Bend, Ind., Melbourne, Fla., and Minneapolis.

I wrote in May that JetAmerica officials had suggested that they wanted eventually to go to Hartford and that folks at the Portsmouth International Airport were in talks to bring the carrier there.

JetAmerica's business plan mirrored that of Skybus, which filed for Chapter 11 protection in April of last year after a 10-month run. It called for discounted seats, flights out of lower-cost secondary cities, and abundant fees for a variety of extras.