They were my airline of choice for the Dulles-Detroit route. I liked their wee jets (faster to load and unload), I liked how you could put your bag “in the trunk” rather then checking it, I liked their non-humiliating staff uniforms, their safety recordings were dorky but cute, I liked getting my choice of snacks, I liked the warm towlettes they gave out, I liked their “leg-by-leg” scheduling system and easy-to-use webiste. Of course I liked their low fares.
I luuuuuved them. My pal phatlewt and I flew them almost once a month since they started 18 months ago.
Now I have to go back to Northworst with their crappy, crappy ontime record for this route and bizarro-world pricing where a one-way costs four times as much as a roundtrip. Is it so much to ask that an airline not completely suck?
sniff
I flew them once, during their first summer of operation, from Boston to Dulles and back. (Went to the new Smithsonian museum and Dulles Airport; great trip.) I wasn’t wild about the little Canadair jet; I had a window seat, but the window is so low I had to hunch way over to look through it. Good schedule and fares, and it was perfect for where I was going.
I’ve been wondering why they shut down so quickly. I understand the problems that the old, legacy carriers have; maintenance and fuel costs on older planes, labor contracts that were set when times weren’t nearly so competitive, and pension and health-care costs for their long-time employees. But how did Independence Air go so wrong, so quickly. They had to have some idea of their expected costs and revenues before they got started. What part of their forecasts was so wrong it put them out of business in 18 months?