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Mainline Airways LLC was tour operator in operation from 2002 to 2003 by an American college student, whom Massachusetts state authorities said didn't hold itself out to the public as a tour operator, instead pretending to be an airline offering cut-rate tickets between Honolulu and Los Angeles without the ability to actually provide the flights due to lack of an aircraft operating certificate ("AOC"). The student was Luke Thompson of Lower Makefield, Pennsylvania, then a college sophomore at Babson College in Massachusetts. The website was www.mainlineairways.com and its customer call center was 1-888-FLY-ML-AIR (1-888-359-6524). During a short period prior to the lawsuit (during May and early-June 2003), the company sold what it called "pre-reservations" on flights that it claimed would be chartered between Los Angeles and Honolulu beginning in July 2003, for as low as $89 one-way. It was popular and publicized by the media as the first low-price "airline" to operate between LAX and Honolulu in many years. The fact that the company was chartering the aircraft and not operating the flights themselves was hidden deep into the contract terms on the company's website, leading to rumors of illegitimacy that attracted the attention of the state attorney's office, who quickly filed suit against Mainline ex parte. According to court documents, the company received aircraft commitments from Omni Air International and Ryan International Airlines for Boeing DC-10 aircraft for the summer season and 757-200 aircraft (pending ETOPS certification) for the winter season, 757-200's (ETOPS) from North American Airlines, ETOPS 737-800's from Miami Air International, MD-11 aircraft from World Airways, and a 757-200 from Pace Airlines, all charter airlines, but Mainline formally rejected several of these prior to the lawsuit, claiming that the commitments came at an unacceptable cost. At the time, many of those airlines' Boeing 757-200 aircraft were not yet ETOPS certified, however most now are. The company had also attempted to gain a cabotage waver to allow Lufthansa's Condor Airlines to fly passengers on foreign registered 757-300 aircraft, that the at the time were sitting idle. Lufthansa withdrew its offer in April 2003. Lufthansa states that it deemed the project unprofitable. The amount of sales in escrow at the time the lawsuit was filed, and returned to customers, was never publicly disclosed by either party, but is thought to be between $200,000 and $5 million. ==Company== From communication between Mainline and airport officials during the planning stage in 2002, the company intended to operate leased aircraft, older wide-body L1011's refitted with new interiors featuring leather seats and TV's at each seat, a copy of JetBlue Airways. However this proved a daunting project, and in February 2003 (prior to the airline making any "pre-reservation" sales), the plan was axed to chartering the 6-times-weekly flight from a supplemental air carrier's aircraft. Leather seats were abandoned and "TV's at every seat" now meant portable DVD players for each passenger. Unrelated to the change to chartered aircraft, the "free cocktails" promise was severely restricted and barely mentioned on the company's website. Confusion and allegations of fraud against the company resulted largely from it not taking any steps towards the 6 month FAA safety certification process required for new airlines, while flights were to being in 3 weeks when the lawsuit was finally filed. Since the company didn't plan to operate its own flights, it did not need FAA safety certification, but did need to properly notify the airports of its change its intentions from starting airline service to only the chartering aircraft and selling seats. It failed to do so. Before Thompson closed it in June 2003, the website had indicated that a handful of flights during the company's first week of proposed service in July 2003 had actually sold out and reservations could not be made. Thompson says word-of-mouth was bringing in droves of customers when they expected to not receive any or minimal bookings prior to advertising. Thompson stated the company was about to begin an expensive ad campaign focused on radio. The route the company planned to serve (California to Hawaii) has high traffic volume but at the time few deeply discounted fares from competitors, and Thompson sustains that the market was overpriced at and potentially "a very profitable charter route with the opportunity to sell high-margin vacation packages in the future." According to IRS tax records, Mainline Airways posted a substantial loss in 2003 including $12,000 of call center expenses and forfeiture a $20,000 deposit on an aircraft charter contract. Mainline Airways was incorporated as Mainline Airways LLC in Pennsylvania on December 12, 2002. Thompson stated in 2005 that if he starts a similar operation in the future, it will likely be an international route from the eastern U.S. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mainline Airways」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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