7 Comments Add your own

• 1. rfdbusinessman  |  August 13th, 2008 at 11:16 pm

  Thanks for the info Thomas. Good work.
  Appears there could be potential for some competition brewing to serve Mexico from RFD at a later time: AeroMexico, VivaAerobus, Mexicana.
  I saw elsewhere that Interjet is looking into flying into the US as well.

• 2. Thomas V. Bona  |  August 14th, 2008 at 9:26 am

  I suspect it will be a case of “first one in gets the sweet deal from RFD” so you might not see more than one actually fly here in the foreseeable future. But you’re right, maybe the airport can play them off each other to encourage one to make a move before the window closes. They’re sort of doing that on the cargo side with Asian airlines … “Hey, here’s a sweet deal for you to come in with minimal immediate costs, try us out … first one to sign gets it.”

  I have no clue what the Mexican airline market is like compared with our domestic troubles. On the one hand, they have to have some of the same fuel and loss-of-leisure travelers issues, but on the other hand, Chicagoland-Mexico seems underserved. ORD just has Mexicana and AeroMexico … and the latter only flies to 2 or 3 cities at a time.

  Could be a good opportunity.

• 3. ANCJason  |  August 14th, 2008 at 11:17 am

  Any word on the aircraft type being used?

  Will be nice to see a foreign tail at RFD.

  I always thought that Icelandair would eventually choose RFD. They aren’t afraid of secondary airports, either, as they moved from Orlando Int’l to Sanford a while back. I think that there is a market for 2-3x weekly that would draw from Madison as well. Everybody loves budget packages to Europe.

• 4. Thomas V. Bona  |  August 14th, 2008 at 11:59 am

  Dunno, though apparently they’re exclusively using 737s from Cancun to the U.S. right now.

  Icelandair? Don’t they make refrigerators? Just kidding.

  I don’t think that’s a real great target for RFD right now … better to have something like Kenny Tours or (we can pray) Ryanair or Virgin America, flights that would go direct someplace people in this area would really want to go, connecting to other locations. I just don’t see a stopover in Iceland as all that attractive for Euro travelers, especially with all ORD’s options. And I imagine the only reason they’re at Sanford is because they want to be in Orlando to fly Icelanders there, not the other way around.

  Something budgety to Europe would work from here, though, you’re right.

• 5. Thomas V. Bona  |  August 14th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

  Jason and others,

  I’ve confirmed with Bob that AeroMexico will fly 737-700s, running at 149 seats. That’s 19 seats more than the Allegiant Maddogs on the route, and comparable with Allegiant’s other planes here, sizewise.

• 6. rfdbusinessman  |  August 14th, 2008 at 5:15 pm

  Jason:

  I had the same thought about IcelandAir flying out of RFD with connections to Europe. I am humbled because you have far more knowledge and wisdom about the aviation industry than I. It could work but Thomas but likely correct about going up against the ORD options.

• 7. ANCJason  |  August 15th, 2008 at 3:33 am

  rfdbusinessman,

  Thanks for the compliment. However, sometimes my excitement for the industry tends to exceed my common sense. But hey….it works for Richard Branson and David Neeleman!

  I started participating in this blog because there were people with a great deal of knowledge already in here!

  I agree on the Icelandair thing. Hopefully Kenny Tours will explore the Ireland charters as vigorously in ‘09 as they did this year. I would definately take a trip to Ireland if the opportunity came to town…..right after a jaunt to Tunica!

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