Indigo plans to begin a daily business jet service between Chicago and New York on 28 August, following US Department of Transportation (DoT) certification to begin regular public charter operations.
DoT approval means Indigo is cleared to sell individual seats on frequent weekday flights using its fleet of business jets. The company has three eight-seat Dassault Falcon 20s, and will add two more by year-end, says chairman Matthew Andersson. Roughly one aircraft a month will be added throughout next year, he says.
Indigo is finalising an order for new, "slightly larger" aircraft, to be announced within weeks, says Andersson. Deliveries of the "executive-configured" 16-seat aircraft will begin next year.
Approval to begin public charter service allows the company to increase aircraft utilisation and provide prices competitive with airline full-fare economy tickets. Indigo has been operating private charters for corporate clients since February and will continue to offer the service at weekends.
Indigo will operate from its own terminal at Chicago Midway to New York's Teterboro and White Plains executive airports. Flights to Minneapolis will be added by year-end, with Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Washington DC following in the first quarter of next year.
With a break-even of four passengers/flight, routes will be profitable from the outset and the company should be profitable "system-wide" within 12 months, says Andersson, adding: "Our aircraft are sold out for the rest of the year."
Andersson says owning and operating its own aircraft allows Indigo to offer "legitimate, reliable and ubiquitous" business jet service. He contrasts this with companies which try to use the internet to aggregate demand for seats then outsource the charter.
One such company, flightserv.com, is clearly struggling to make the "demand aggregation" model work. Lacking capital, flightserv remains limited to offering seats on business jet flights between New York and Atlanta.
The company has announced a number of deals to boost its capital and revenue, including a $2.5 million private placement and the acquisition of a company with pending commitments for $9 million in leisure charter revenue. If the deals fall through, flightserv warns, it will not have adequate funds to continue operations.
Source: Flight International
