Charter operator Xtra Airways says it has no plans to begin flights under an agreement with an organisation called Air Florida, countering claims made on the organisation’s webpage.
The website — www.airflorida.co — says a company called Air Florida Systems was incorporated this year to re-launch the Air Florida brand.
The company says it expects to begin passenger operations — initially as a charter carrier — in 2015 using a number of different aircraft types, including Boeing 737-400s operated by Xtra.
“We have reached an agreement in principle with Xtra Airways of Boise, ID, for the provision of multiple 737-400 aircraft (and crews) on an ACMI lease program,” says Air Florida’s website.
ACMI, which stands for aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance, are lease agreements under which the lessor handles all aspects of operating the aircraft.
The telephone number listed on Air Florida’s website is not in service and the company did not respond to an emailed request from Flightglobal for more information.
But Joshua Weinshank, director of operations at Xtra, tells Flightglobal it has no agreement — in principle or otherwise — to operate aircraft for Air Florida.
“That’s not correct,” he says of the website’s claim. “We’ve ordered them to remove any references to us from their website. Their doing so was totally inappropriate.”
The website says Air Florida plans to “focus on service” at cities in Florida such as Tampa, Sarasota, Fort Lauderdale and Daytona Beach.
It says that within one year of beginning operations it plans to fly to roughly 20 other destinations, including Washington Dulles, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Nashville, Albany, Buffalo, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Juan.
In addition to 737s, the website says Air Florida has had discussions to lease multiple Embraer EMB-120 turboprops and one Boeing MD-11.
The original Air Florida folded in 1984, its demise following the January 1982 crash of Air Florida flight 90 near Washington National airport during a snowstorm.
The aircraft, a 737-200, slammed into the 14th Street Bridge shortly after takeoff and then sank into the Potomac River, killing 74 of 79 passengers and crew.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the aircraft crashed due to ice build-up, but pinned blame largely on crew error.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
