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$600,000 refunded to customers, says JetAmerica

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer Updated 6:14 PM Monday, July 13, 2009

JetAmerica has refunded more than $600,000 for at least 6,400 passenger bookings after a mix-up delayed the beginning of the new carrier’s flights more than a month, a spokesman said Monday, July 13.

JetAmerica had planned to begin flying Monday, with flights eventually planned from Toledo, Ohio; Lansing, Mich., Melbourne, Fla., South Bend, Ind., and Minneapolis to Newark, N.J. But the company has had to delay its debut until Aug. 14 because management was unable to complete arrangements for takeoff and landing time slots at Newark Liberty International Airport, spokesman Bryan Glazer said from New York.

“It has never been JetAmerica’s intent to mislead or deceive consumers,” the carrier said in a statement from its legal department.

JetAmerica has said that it would consider serving Dayton and other cities in 15 to 18 months, if operations go well.

The delay of JetAmerica’s flight service is the latest problem for a startup airline organized by John Weikle, 59, the Tipp City entrepreneur who founded the ill-fated Skybus low-fare airline in 2007. Skybus failed within a year, piling up costs and struggling with high fuel prices.

Weikle also tried to start up HeartLand Airlines years ago to serve Dayton business travelers, but left in 2000 in a disagreement about who should run that company. HeartLand never started operations and dissolved in 2001.

Weikle did not return a telephone message requesting comment on Monday.

JetAmerica is leasing its aircraft and crews from Miami Air International Inc., a charter carrier. JetAmerica said it expected to operate as a charter carrier, not a scheduled carrier, and believed that it therefore did not need to obtain time slots from Newark in order to take off and land there.

JetAmerica said it was advised by the FAA in February that “there were no limits to unscheduled operations,” so JetAmerica’s management believed that Newark time slots would not be required for operating there. But in June, the FAA said that slots would be required, so JetAmerica is trying to arrange for them, JetAmerica said.

FAA spokesman Paul Turk said it was unfair to blame his agency for JetAmerica’s problem. The FAA said in a statement last week: “If they’re going to be operating flights that occur at the same time on a regular basis, it’s considered regularly scheduled or regularly conducted service.”

JetAmerica is still receiving ticket orders, even though it has stopped advertising so that it can focus on the first two months of flight schedules, Glazer said.

The airline, based in Clearwater, Fla., operates a Web site at www.jetamerica.com.

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