23 August, 2018

Elite Airways drop Rochester routes before even taking off.

Elite Airways has cancelled its proposed services between Rochester International Airport and Phoenix, Arizona and St. Augustin, Florida before ever flying a single flight.  

The small boutique commuter airline blames poor ticket sales for the reason for pulling the routes before they had even started. According to local media, sales were so poor that a small airline like Elite couldn't afford to take the risk of starting up the route in the hopes of gaining enough passengers to break-even during its initial run. Elite say that anyone who has booked will be refunded in due course.

Initially, the company based in Portland, Maine had scheduled the routes to start in July but delayed the start until October and now, this week, Elite dropped the bombshell that it was axing them altogether. 

“It was about selling tickets. The bookings were just not maturing,” John Reed the Rochester Airport's Executive Director said today. Whilst the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce said it was disappointing news.

New Florida routes.

Elsewhere, Elite Airways is starting two services, the first will start on 6th September and will operate between Long Island MacArthur/Islip and Melbourne-Orlando, Florida, with connecting service to Bimini in the Bahamas. The service will operate on Thursdays and Sundays. Another new service will operate between Melbourne to Key West, on a Monday and Friday and the airline says the scheduled start date is currently 19th October. “We are pleased to add new service to Key West and announce our return to Long Island Islip with service to Melbourne and Bimini, while also making schedule adjustments for anticipated seasonal travel patterns,” said John Pearsall, President of Elite Airways. 

Elite Airways operates a fleet of 11 Bombardier CRJ-200 and CRJ-700 jet aircraft.


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