Word: valujet
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...Nations Air has never had an accident or a safety-related operating incident in its 15 months as a scheduled airline between Boston, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Nor will it. Last week Nations Air became a charter airline, having become the first business casualty of the May 11 crash of ValuJet Flight 592 in the Florida Everglades. Skittish consumers canceled 40% of the airline's reservations, leaving CEO Mark McDonald with little choice but to fly for hire...
...plight of Nations Air showed the public's concern about the safety of low-cost airlines as investigators dredged the swampy ValuJet crash site for clues to the cause of the accident. Such fear of budget flying could result in higher U.S. airfares if no-frills carriers halt or cut back service. ValuJet, which suspended 50% of its 320 daily flights after the accident, said last week it doesn't intend to return to full service before the fourth quarter...
That opinion was backed up, after the crash, by Department of Transportation Secretary Federico Pena, who professed satisfaction with ValuJet's zealous attention to regulators' concerns, a stance echoed by some of his colleagues. Not everyone agreed. DOT Inspector General Mary Schiavo, a presidential appointee who acts as a watchdog for all the agency's programs, including the FAA, ruffled feathers by publicly declaring she would not fly ValuJet. Perhaps she was familiar with the FAA report issued just nine days before the crash and first published by the Chicago Tribune last week. According to that document, the low-cost...
Last week the company's stock lost altitude, and ValuJet's market value fell 27%. It is unclear whether ValuJet will hit even worse turbulence in the long term. "In the big scheme of things, accidents happen, there's a lot of fanfare, it blows off, and the company goes on," says Kit Darby, president of Air Inc., an Atlanta information service for professional pilots. Although Air Florida eventually went under after a 1982 crash in Washington, Darby believes that ValuJet, with its firmer financial footing, may well absorb this setback. "Historically people don't think about safety," says Darby...
...other low-cost carriers are already feeling the shock waves. Mark McDonald, president and CEO of Nations Air Express, a 15-month-old start-up based in Smyrna, Georgia, says the ValuJet crash has had "a tremendous impact" on his business. "Our bookings have been dropping about 40% a day [since the crash]," he says. "There is a lot of concern out there, and it's not getting any better." Jordan, who last week appointed retired Air Force General James B. Davis as ValuJet's new "safety czar," remains convinced, though, that his company--and passengers--can again fly high...