https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/v ... spartanntp
A ViaAir flight from OKC to AUS stopped in TUL to tend to passengers from a previous flight, encountered mechanical issues, then canceled the rest of the flight to Austin. Airline denied compensation to the affected passengers.
It sounds like this is a big problem within ViaAir.

Sounds like they are calling plays from the SY playbook.

tys777 wrote:

Sounds like they are calling plays from the SY playbook.

Wait, so they dumped passengers in TUL that were on an OKC-AUS non-stop and didn't give them any assistance or compensation? I've never even heard of such a thing. DOT will crush them.

Can someone provide a synopsis of ViaAir? I've never heard of them....and those fliers probably wished they never had either.

hiflyeras wrote:

Can someone provide a synopsis of ViaAir? I've never heard of them....and those fliers probably wished they never had either.

Offers scheduled service to small/medium markets across the central and eastern US. Operates E120s, E145s, and Citations. Kind of a vacation bundle company too. Callsign "Stingray".

All of their scheduled service is on the ERJ-145's.

They are building Focus Cities in AUS and SFB. They had some EAS markets in West Virginia but have been booted from most of them. They use the ULCC terminal in AUS.

I was considering going with these guys on a past business trip to AUS from TUS, but they only fly the route 3x week which was less than ideal. I'm glad I didn't because if you head over to tripadvisor, you can see all the awful reviews of how many passengers they leave in the dust when operational issues arise. I don't see them lasting much longer if they can't get their act together.

drdisque wrote:

All of their scheduled service is on the ERJ-145's.

Is the rest charter?

tys777 wrote:

Sounds like they are calling plays from the SY playbook.

Seems like the difference is that SY at least refunded passengers' tickets and then told them to go find and pay for another flight on their own. According to the passengers, they're neither getting them to their destination nor are they refunding their tickets.

I was just browsing their web site last night, wondering what exactly t heir plan is.
They aren't exactly priced the cheapest, and with PR like this, that won't be helping them anytime soon.

tys777 wrote:

Sounds like they are calling plays from the SY playbook.

Seems like the difference is that SY at least refunded passengers' tickets and then told them to go find and pay for another flight on their own. According to the passengers, they're neither getting them to their destination nor are they refunding their tickets.

SJCMSP wrote:

tys777 wrote:

Sounds like they are calling plays from the SY playbook.

Seems like the difference is that SY at least refunded passengers' tickets and then told them to go find and pay for another flight on their own. According to the passengers, they're neither getting them to their destination nor are they refunding their tickets.

LOL. Buh-bye, airline.

BWIAirport wrote:

drdisque wrote:

All of their scheduled service is on the ERJ-145's.

Is the rest charter?

Yes, the EMB-120's and Citations are only used for charters. However, I rarely see them even flying anymore. I think they started having trouble getting parts for the EMB-120's (I think the freight operators out west snatch them all up.)

hiflyeras wrote:

Can someone provide a synopsis of ViaAir? I've never heard of them....and those fliers probably wished they never had either.

They're kind of similar to OneJet (if you've heard of them).

As others have already said, the DOT will give the airline a huge fine for that... Does anyone know if SY received similar treatment from the DOT...?

drdisque wrote:

BWIAirport wrote:

drdisque wrote:

All of their scheduled service is on the ERJ-145's.

Is the rest charter?

Yes, the EMB-120's and Citations are only used for charters. However, I rarely see them even flying anymore. I think they started having trouble getting parts for the EMB-120's (I think the freight operators out west snatch them all up.)

Yeah, the E120s are pretty much faded out by now. I remember seeing those quite a lot when UA had a regional hub at PDX...

I find it interesting that an airline will destroy it's reputation just to save a few $$$.

lavalampluva wrote:

I find it interesting that an airline will destroy it's reputation just to save a few $$$.

My guess is they cant refund the money without putting their cash situation close to ZERO. Yes, I think they could be that LOW on cash

They would probably be better off trying to fly somewhere and focussing on it than trying to fly to so many cities 3x a week. They have a "focus city" at CLT but even that seems to have faded some.

The CLT focus city is a remnant of their EAS contracts. Their first EAS contract was Beckley, WV, which they bid from CLT for some reason. They added Florida tags to the Beckley flight to help utilization and because they weren't able to get an interline with AA.

As much as miss the ExpressJet service from a decade ago that ran between AUS/SAT and OKC, I was actually thinking of using these guys to go visit my family in a few weeks...good thing I didn't book the tix.

Via, Aerodynamics (ADI), Elite, and OneJet all have questionable financials and operations it seems?.

They haven't had a good track record for a while. Clarksburg Airport booted them for their disappointing service.

https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/55322-clarksburg-axes-viaair-contract-airport-seeks-new-carrier

I flew with them last summer for a day trip from PKB to CLT to check out some breweries in Charlotte. I knew of their spotty record but I thought I'd roll the dice. The flights were going to give me 8 hours in Charlotte. That would be able to give me enough time even with a delay. I figured worst case scenario, I'd go to the Carolinas Aviation Museum if I was really pressed for time. However, I didn't anticipate a 7 hour delay.

After a few weather delays and a mechanical delay, they told us (myself and two other passengers) the E120 surely wasn't going anywhere today and a E145 would be flying up from CLT to take us there. The agent didn't really know when that'd be but they said they'd call me so I could at least leave the airport and explore Parkersburg (which turned into late morning bar hopping). To there credit, they did call me.....I had 3 separate ViaAir agents call me to try to rebook me on that later flight. At that point I figured, I'd just fly to CLT even if it meant turning right around and flying back. Eventually I returned to the airport for my flight hours later to a find the same E120 on the ramp. Somehow they fixed the "unrepairable" plane.

Although all of the ViaAir employees were quite nice to me, it was quite clear no one knew what was ever going on.

drdisque wrote:

The CLT focus city is a remnant of their EAS contracts. Their first EAS contract was Beckley, WV, which they bid from CLT for some reason. They added Florida tags to the Beckley flight to help utilization and because they weren't able to get an interline with AA.

Thanks for the info...sounds like they're just barely hanging on. And when an airline flies to places I've never even heard of in the US like Beckley WV I doubt they'll be missed. I'll feel bad for the employees that have stuck around though. I waited until the end at my first airline...had my head in the sand...was a big mistake.

This is par for the course for this operation. LWB and SHD also petitioned to extract themselves from EAS arrangements with ViaAir. Flights rarely operated on time, if at all.

DocLightning wrote:

SJCMSP wrote:

tys777 wrote:

Sounds like they are calling plays from the SY playbook.

Seems like the difference is that SY at least refunded passengers' tickets and then told them to go find and pay for another flight on their own. According to the passengers, they're neither getting them to their destination nor are they refunding their tickets.

LOL. Buh-bye, airline.

Agreed! And to quote Heidi Klum: "You Can Weave Da Wunway".

Bobloblaw wrote:

My guess is they cant refund the money without putting their cash situation close to ZERO. Yes, I think they could be that LOW on cash

If you used a credit card then you should have some recourse here. Although I did notice the company rep indicated in the OP article that the ticket had been used which would give ViaAir access to the credit card funds. If you used a Debt Card you would be SOL. I believe a quick call to credit card company would put a hold on ViaAir receiving funds.
An airline not having access to funds for ticket sales before service was one of the issues that helped sink F9 and BN in the past.

SJCMSP wrote:

Seems like the difference is that SY at least refunded passengers' tickets and then told them to go find and pay for another flight on their own. According to the passengers, they're neither getting them to their destination nor are they refunding their tickets.

Dumping passengers a hundred miles farther from their destination without recourse is a service they offer free of charge.

Okie

drdisque wrote:

All of their scheduled service is on the ERJ-145's.

They are building Focus Cities in AUS and SFB. They had some EAS markets in West Virginia but have been booted from most of them. They use the ULCC terminal in AUS.

Oh wow! Focus city in Austin! I know some Austin Fanboys who want Delta to make a focus City in Austin but maybe they'll be happy with Via Air!

SJCMSP wrote:

Seems like the difference is that SY at least refunded passengers' tickets and then told them to go find and pay for another flight on their own. According to the passengers, they're neither getting them to their destination nor are they refunding their tickets.

SY refunded tickets and passengers could either go find another flight or just go home. With Via Air, the passengers can't just go home because the airline flew them 100 miles away in the wrong direction. It's pretty funny when you think about it.

lavalampluva wrote:

I find it interesting that an airline will destroy it's reputation just to save a few $$$.

I don't think they had any reputation to destroy. I've never heard of them and I'm pretty sure I'm in the majority, even on this board.

They definitely didn't have a reputation. Its a shame. If they were able to be on time and reliable in their EAS markets, they had a real shot at success. Providing connecting opportunities to Florida from CLT would be a great idea, but you can't do that only flying 1-3 weekly and charging $500-$600 roundtrip.

Its also sad that the employees just up and left them there. This is the inherit danger of outsourcing your ground crew. Its not their airline, not their immediate supervisor, they don't care..................I'm going to hope the flight crew was unaware.

spinkid wrote:

They definitely didn't have a reputation.

They do now!

sounds like Via has been headed down this road for a long time, and this could be the end (forcibly would be best really - euthanized).

IPFreely wrote:

SY refunded tickets and passengers could either go find another flight or just go home. With Via Air, the passengers can't just go home because the airline flew them 100 miles away in the wrong direction. It's pretty funny when you think about it.

Though putting pax on the ground 100 miles away in the wrong direction, with no refund might sound worse (and yes, a bit funny) than SY's debacle in Los Cabos and Mazatlan... its not. SY left 2 737 loads of returning US vacationers 1700, 1800 miles from home, in a foreign country; the promise of a (future) refund is quite meaningless in that setting; they coudn't just "go home". In particular, getting from Mazatlan to Minnesota when Delta isn't flying that route is both difficult and expensive.

Via simply doesn't have the capital to run scheduled services. SY (and particularly its execs) committed a willful, immoral and ethical crime in choosing to leave those families on the ground and not attempt rescue flights or engage another operator to do so on their behalf. SY had the financial resources to "make things right", but they actively chose not to.

SY's sins are far greater than Via's, IMO.

hiflyeras wrote:

And when an airline flies to places I've never even heard of in the US like Beckley WV I doubt they'll be missed.

I've heard of Beckley only for the fact that I drive trucks for a living, so I've passed through there multiple times in the past. That said, I didn't know there was even an airport in Beckley.

I actually kinda liked Via's emerging strategy of connecting secondary and tertiary markets nonstop to SFB--places like JAN, BTR, MOB, and MGM that G4 or F9 wouldn't touch with a 320 but Via might make work with a regional jet. No guarantee it would work, but it seemed worth trying.

So I've just read their CoC and, while IANAL, it seems pretty clear that they breached their contract.

http://flyviaairlines.com/docs/coc.pdf

See "FAILURE TO OPERATE ON SCHEDULE OR FAILURE TO CARRY."

But from other posts here, it appears that they do not generally believe in honoring contracts.

DocLightning wrote:

while IANAL

ugh. I really don't like this acronym.
but, ViaAir is pretty shitty.

I flew 'EMC Tucson - Austin a month or two ago, and while they ran a little late, it got me there. Folks were nice.

All I can say is that they aren't long for this world.

This is the difficulty using airlines, especially new ones, that offer limited service to their destinations. When a problem arises they often drop the ball, since in the fine print, passengers have almost no rights. The company should have a Plan B when things go wrong.