What is it about the airline industry that makes an entrepreneur's heart go of a flutter? Few people outside Houston ever grow up dreaming that they will one day start an oil company - though take note if your kid asks what the per-barrel price of East Texas crude will be when he's 21!
But running an airline is another thing altogether.
In the US dreams can become reality if one has the skill and money to back an operating plan. But of the hundreds of applications that the DOT receives for new start- ups, only a few actually make it into business. The others - with names like Family Airlines, Air 21 and Starship - are long on hope and short on practicality.
A prospectus for American Dream Airlines, for example, was recently mailed out by its Boston-based founder, who proposes transcontinental and transpacific services using Airbus widebody aircraft. The founder, who worked in the airline catering business, says certain details have yet to be worked out. Accessing Tokyo, for instance, may be difficult because 40 established airlines are in line to get into Narita airport, probably the most restrictive in the world.
One should not be so arrogant as to dismiss anyone's vision out of hand, of course. After all, when the founders of the Atlanta-based startup carrier ValuJet first applied for an operator's licence, their application was summarily laughed out of DOT's certification office. It was a charter back then, but subsequently was remoulded into a scheduled carrier, certified, and after two years of operation has become the US's most profitable carrier relative to its size and revenues.
Source: Airline Business
