SkyValue

Note Story on SkyValue below. Gary has had SouthEast, Hooters, PanAm and now SkyValue not a very good history. Makes you wonder why Allegiant stays away, maybe they know something the others do not.

Can SkyValue fly where Hooters lost its wings?

SkyValue USA will be flying into Gary with high hopes of soaring where previous airlines have stalled. It won't be easy, according to air industry observers and local travel agents. "I think the problem they will have is they are going after the greater Chicago market, which I would throw Gary into, so they're competing with the bigger airlines out of Midway and O'Hare," said Roger King, senior analyst for transportation with CreditSights, a provider of independent credit research.

SkyValue flights from Gary/Chicago International Airport to five leisure destinations, including Las Vegas and Orlando, start Dec. 15. The Gary airport has been without regularly scheduled airline service since January, when Hooters Air and the "Hooters Girls" made their last flight out. Before that, Southeast Airlines did a 10-month stint there. Before Southeast it was Pan Am.

"Would you rather fly Southwest out of Midway, or these guys out of Gary?" King added. SkyValue's executives say customers already are answering that question, with 10,000 reservations booked since mid-October. "So you live there in Northwest Indiana and want to fly to Vegas and Orlando," SkyValue USA Chief Executive Officer Darrell Richardson said. "What makes us attractive is the free parking, the hassle-free boarding, and the short drive to the airport. That's all good stuff."

SkyValue is touting more than $100 in savings for seven days of parking free at Gary versus Midway and O'Hare. The two big Chicago airports start pricing parking at $12 and $9 per day respectively in outlying economy lots. To park close in costs up to $26 per day. Richardson also is touting what he says is an important difference between SkyValue and airlines that flew out of Gary previously.

"No one has ever come into Gary and said this is where we're gonna be," Richardson said. "Gary is going to be our hub. It's different than anything that's been in there before." The hub for Hooters Airline was Myrtle Beach, S.C., a place "no one wanted to go," airport officials say now. Hooters went to some desirable Florida destinations, but the flights connected through Myrtle Beach and even Columbus, Ohio.

"Those guys (SkyValue) are flying to places people want to go," said Chris Curry, Gary airport director. All SkyValue flights will be direct. That is a big plus, local travel agents says. "People want direct flights; they want nonstop," said Barbara Higby, an agent at Aladdin Travel in Munster. Even so, Aladdin clients are so far leery of booking on SkyValue, which has even less brand recognition than the previous airlines at Gary, she said.

Higby and other travel agents say most customers are still opting for Southwest out of Midway.
The reason region travel agents do much of their booking on Southwest is simple, said Dean Cooper, owner of Griffith Travel Center. "No. 1 would be price," Cooper said. "And real close at No. 2 is nonstop."

Still, the dynamics of the discount airline industry is changing, as leisure airlines such as Allegiant enter the smaller markets and new low-cost players such as JetBlue enter larger markets like Chicago. "We sell a lot of Southwest Airline tickets, but prices on Southwest have been going up, so they're not as discounted as they use to be," Cooper said.

SkyValue initially was offering Las Vegas and Phoenix flights for $89, while comparable Southwest tickets were priced at $109 for those destinations. It would be hard for any leisure airline to measure up to Southwest's schedule, which has 11 daily flights to Phoenix and 12 to Las Vegas from Midway. SkyValue will have two per week to Phoenix and two per week to Las Vegas.