A handful of former Morris Air executives are getting back into the no-frills air charter business, their niche in the late 1980s before Morris became a regularly scheduled air carrier and Southwest Airlines bought it.
Rick Frendt, former Morris Air chairman, has teamed with former Morris managers Doug Terry and Neal Daves to form WinWest Shuttle."Beginning July 16, we will start offering regularly scheduled, daily nonstop charter service between Fresno, Calif., and Las Vegas," said Frendt. WinWest early this week began accepting reservations for its first flights.
The route will be flown using a 122-seat Boeing 737 leased from Ogden-based WinAir.
Frendt said WinWest wants to provide affordable air transportation to smaller cities underserved by existing carriers and having over-priced fares.
Terry Cooper, general manager of the Fresno airport, said Sky-West Airlines had been flying from Fresno to Las Vegas but stopped in late April.
"We no longer had anyone serving what for us was our third busiest route," Cooper said.
In the past, he said, as many as 60,000 passengers a year were transported between Fresno and Las Vegas.
Mike Boyd of The Boyd Group, airline industry consultants in Golden, Colo., said there is demand for service between Fresno and Las Vegas.
"It is popular because people want to go to Las Vegas for gaming," Boyd said.
Most people are not flying to Las Vegas from Fresno to connect with other flights, "and airlines today want to fly to cities where their passengers can connect (with other flights)," he said.
Frendt said WinWest executives were familiar with the route because "it was one of Morris Air's best."