May 19, 2004 -- Independence Air is here, and it's a doozy.
The new low-fare airline based at Washington Dulles Airport announced its first destinations on Wednesday, and it'll be dragging down fares all over the East Coast.
Formerly Atlantic Coast Airlines, otherwise known as United Express, Independence Air fell out with its ex-partner United last year and decided to go its own way as a low-fare carrier. Independence took its fleet of 50-seat regional jets, itty-bitty little planes with no middle seats, and reassigned them to fly to 35 cities this summer. You can book tickets right now at www.flyi.com.
Independence will start flying in June with six cities, and will ramp up slowly throughout the summer. For their schedule of when they're flying where, see www.flyi.com/too-destinations.htm.
By September 1, Independence will fly to Albany, NY; Atlanta, GA; Boston, MA; Buffalo, NY; Burlington, VT; Charleston, SC; Charleston, WV; Chicago, IL; Cleveland, OH; Columbia, SC; Columbus, OH; Dayton, OH; Detroit, MI; Greensboro, NC; Greenville, SC; Hartford, CT; Indianapolis, IN; Jacksonville, FL; Knoxville, TN; Lansing, MI; Louisville, KY; Manchester, NH; Nashville, TN; New York JFK; Newark, NJ; Newburgh, NY; Norfolk, VA; Pittsburgh, PA; Portland, ME; Providence, RI; Raleigh, NC; Rochester, NY; Savannah, GA; Syracuse, NY and White Plains, NY.
Nonstop fares range from $39 one-way for an advance-purchase flight to Norfolk or Pittsburgh, to $146 for a last-minute one-way to Atlanta or Savannah. And you can connect through Dulles between most of these cities at really, really low prices -- for example, we tried Burlington, VT to Greenville, SC and got a $178 roundtrip. That's pretty sweet.
Make sure to check fares and book your flights through Independence's Web site, www.flyi.com. They won't be selling tickets through any online travel agencies, a spokeswoman said. Any listings for "Atlantic Coast Airlines" flight after mid-June on Expedia, Orbitz or other agency sites are errors and not Independence flights, she says.
Hooray for Independence!
Independence brings low, predictable fares to a slew of cities that never had them before. Sure, folks in Manchester NH, Providence and Chicago are spoiled for choice, thanks to Southwest's presence in their cities. But Independence is a huge step forward for people in places like Portland ME, Savannah and Knoxville -- folks who've been shackled to the major airlines for much too long.
For residents of Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and other cities served by smaller low-fare carriers like JetBlue and AirTran, Independence is a great new choice, too. Independence opens up connections to all sorts of places formerly only served by the big boys -- which makes sense, as Independence used to be United Express.
Independence is running a few twists on the standard low-fare airline formula. For one thing, they've got those little regional jets. Regional jets are faster to load and unload than bigger planes, but have almost no room for carry-ons. Independence plans to supplement their fleet of little planes with bigger Airbus jets, which they'll use to fly to Florida and the West Coast in late 2004 and 2005. The bigger planes will have seatback entertainment systems. The little ones don't have entertainment systems, but most Independence flights are pretty short right now.
Their frequent-flyer program also has a new strategy -- rather than getting points from the number of flights you take, you get points from the amount of money you spend. Spend $1,500 in a year, and get a free roundtrip of up to 1,500 miles each way. Unfortunately, that one-year limit will prevent leisure travelers from reaping free seats.
There's still a reason to sign up for the frequent-flyer program, though: if you sign up, you get $25 off your first roundtrip. To sign up, go to www.flyi.com/iclub/login.jsp.
Independence Air's sole downside is that it flies into Washington Dulles Airport, which is nowhere near DC. It's out in the Northern Virginia suburbs. On the other hand, it's no farther from DC than Baltimore-Washington International Airport, and plenty of people fly Southwest into BWI to get to DC.
A $2.50 public express bus (www.wmata.com/timetables/dc/5a.pdf) runs hourly between the airport and DC, taking an hour to get to or from the District. Somewhat more frequent service comes from Washington Flyer (www.washfly.com) for $8. Their buses run every half an hour and dump you at a Metrorail station in Virginia, where you take a train into the city. You can also grab a SuperShuttle (www.supershuttle.com) van directly to the District for somewhat more than $20, or a $50-60 cab.
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