BRITISH AEROSPACE has teamed up with airline-services company World Technology Systems (WTS) to offer 19-seat turboprop connections to smaller US communities in danger of losing air links as regionals shift operations to bigger markets with the introduction of larger aircraft.
Atlanta, Georgia-based WTS is proposing that a community provides seed money to start air services. The company would market the service, sell the tickets and contract with an airline to operate the flights as a scheduled charter. BAe Assett Management - Turboprops would provide the operator with aircraft at "a favourable rate".
Business-development director Cary Evans says that agreement with one community "-is a matter of securing funds. We will move quickly when it happens". BAe would provide 19-seat Jetstream 31s, but Evans says that its deal offers the flexibility to upgrade "all the way to regional jets", if required.
WTS has done something similar before, starting Myrtle Beach Jet Express as a scheduled charter on behalf of the South Carolina community, which lost services when American Airlines pulled out. Evans says that the community-airline proposal is attracting "enormous" interest. "We are willing to invest. If we sell 40-50 aircraft, we can make significant money," he says.
Source: Flight International
