Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, FL)
April 16, 2001 Monday, City Edition
Getting off the ground Rudi Dekkers knows the
challenges -- others have tried and failed to successfully launch a Florida-only
commuter airline -- but he is determined that his start-up, Florida Air, will
succeed
BYLINE: Mark Gordon, Times-Union business writer
SECTION: FIRST BUSINESS; Pg. FB-12
LENGTH: 2138 words
SARASOTA -- As one of Florida's top politicians, Katherine Harris doesn't have
much time to do a lot of personal traveling.
But twice in the past month or so, the secretary of state -- who received national attention for her role in the November presidential election -- has taken the 75-minute plane ride from her current home in Tallahassee to her old stomping grounds in Sarasota. Her choice of airline? Florida Air, a start-up commuter airline based here, grasping to be an air-taxi for the entire state.
'She has taken the airline twice,' Harris spokesman Ben McKay said. 'She appreciates the convenience that Florida Air offers.'
Now if Florida Air can get the rest of the state to listen up.
Run by an ambitious, optimistic and fast-talking Dutch citizen named Rudi Dekkers, the airline, using 11-seat Cessna Grand Caravans it borrowed from Alaska Air subsidiary Harbor Air, opened for business Feb. 15. By March, it added Jacksonville to its route list, and if the airline catches on with Florida travelers it might expand to other cities, including Pensacola, Atlanta and Savannah, Ga.
First, though, Dekkers and his staff of marketing and sales personnel must get cracking on selling the service to the people of the six cities -- Sarasota, Tallahassee, Fort Myers, Marathon, Orlando and Jacksonville -- it currently serves. In the initial start-up phase, Jacksonville fliers can only go directly to Orlando and Sarasota.
While some of Florida Air's planes -- most often the ones leaving or going to the state capital -- have been nearly full most days, many others take off with just two or three passengers, and even a small percentage of flights have been canceled outright because there weren't any customers on board at all. (Florida Air executives said to break even on any given flight, they need to have at least five paying customers on board.)
And the first few months of business have presented other problems, besides how to fill the seats. Paperwork snafus delayed the start in Tallahassee for a few days, and in Jacksonville, flights were also delayed for a few weeks, as Dekkers worked out agreements with Midway Airlines to use its gates and baggage workers at Jacksonville International Airport.
Plus, an earthquake, 3,000 miles away in Seattle earlier this year, was even blamed for some of Florida Air's early problems. Dekkers said the Feb. 28 tremor shook up the communication system of Seattle-based Alaska Air, which was handling ticket reservations for Florida Air through Harbor Air.
All of these challenges Dekkers is battling underscore the difficulties in starting an airline and making it profitable.
'I'm going to give it three months,' Dekkers said. 'If in that time, it's not making it the way I think it could make it, I'm going to have a problem.' To fly or to drive
Other start-up commuter airlines have run into problems in the past trying to serve Florida, including Air South and Air Florida.
'Quite a few airlines have tried to make money serving an intra-Florida market,' said Bill Pettit, head of marketing at Jacksonville International Airport, 'but they have all found it to be very difficult.'
The biggest competing obstacle for Florida Air, just as it has been with past start-up airlines in the state, is cars and buses. The prevailing attitude with most travelers, Pettit said, is that to fly somewhere that is within a reasonable drive time, the cost and convenience has to be especially worth it.
For example, it takes about five hours on a full tank of gas to drive from Jacksonville International Airport to the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. Florida Air, assuming each flight is on time, can get you from JIA to Sarasota -- with a stop in Orlando -- in 2 hours and 15 minutes.
The cost for a one-way ticket from Jacksonville to Sarasota on Florida Air is about $ 127, which doesn't include extra costs, like paying for taxis or a rented car to get around.
Pettit throws out another angle that makes it tough for commuter airlines like Florida Air -- reliability. If you are going to San Francisco for a week-long business trip, then an hour delay will not likely make or break you. But, if you are going to Sarasota for a 1 p.m. meeting and are leaving in the morning, then an hour delay could be costly.
'You've got to be reliable, too,' Pettit said. 'If someone thinks you are going to be an hour late, they might just say 'heck with it' and drive.'
Darryl Jenkins, who studies commuter airlines as the director of the Aviation Institute at George Washington University, said about 75 percent of start-up commuter airlines like Florida Air fail within 10 years of their first take-off. The No. 1 reason, just like it is for other industries, is a failure to sell the product, in this case, airline tickets.
'The most important thing for a start-up airline is to find a niche,' Jenkins said, 'and get well-developed routes.'
Florida routes -- or a lack thereof -- is what attracted Dekkers to starting the airline in the first place. He had been running a flight training school and aircraft repair center in Venice since 1995, and he kept hearing complaints from people about the lack of flights available to and from Florida cities.
'The idea came to me because I'm a businessperson, and I saw there was limited flights to these cities,' Dekkers said, 'I said, 'Why can't I fill in?' '
In 1998, Dekkers set off to write a business plan that would cover those under-flown routes, while also providing a good service to air travelers. Dekkers said he used Herb Kelleher, co-founder of Southwest Airlines, as his role model. The quirky, yet successful Dallas-based national airline has one of the best customer satisfaction images in the industry. 'Hungry' for business
Picking Kelleher and Southwest as the model to shoot for makes sense, and not only because Dekkers said customer service is his first priority. Southwest does things a little differently, from its singing flight attendants to its first-come, first-seated plane-boarding tactics.
Dekkers, too, does things a little differently. Proof can be found in how he relishes the struggles a start-up airline presents.
'I think you have to be nuts to do this,' Dekkers said. 'But it's good for a guy like me. I don't get bored.'
Dekkers, 44, was born in Holland. He began flying as a hobby in his homeland in 1981, in between working as a computer salesman and real estate broker. In 1985, he earned his European commercial pilot's license and he left Holland for the warm beaches and pretty blue waters of the Florida Gulf Coast. He settled with his wife, Astrid, in Naples and 'quickly fell in love with the states.'
Besides adapting to American culture -- he still mixes up some English phrases, like at a recent meeting when he said he was 'hungry' and reached for a Diet Coke -- Dekkers also has tried to change his business thinking to blend in with the United States.
His first task was to sort through the glut of rules and regulations set up for American business. And according to Jenkins, of the Aviation Institute, commuter airlines is a 'red-tape-intensive industry.'
Dekkers first has had to struggle with what his role in the company is. In practice, he is the founder, chief executive officer and all-around head-honcho. But since he isn't an American citizen, government regulations ban him from being full owner of the airline. Until a waiver of that rule is approved, Dekkers said he will only have a limited stake in the company.
In the meantime, Wally Hilliard, a Florida businessman who made his career as an insurance executive in Green Bay, Wis., has financial control of the airline.
There are other regulations that have prevented the airline from taking off the way Dekkers would have hoped. He has yet to receive permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly out of state, and in Orlando, business has been slowed because of a long waiting list of airlines trying to get flight slots.
Dekkers said he's a salesman at heart, and he hopes his knack for making money, combined with his dedicated work ethic, will help Florida Air become a success. The flight training school and airplane maintenance complex he runs in Venice, Huffman Aviation Inc., is an example of his ability to make a buck.
Dekkers, upon hearing some of his flight students and other customers were eating outside the grounds, decided to open a restaurant near the runways about a year ago. He called it Cockpit Cafe. He eats lunch there several times a week.
But during a recent lunch meeting, Dekkers suddenly got up from his seat, and still chewing a piece of his grilled chicken, he cleared some dirty dishes off a nearby table.
'This gets the people in and out,' he said after rejoining his guests. 'No waiting.'
Dekkers isn't a big fan of waiting, either for restaurant customers or for himself. Despite a limp in his right leg from a knee injury, he moves fast, with the restless energy of a 7-year-old on a sugar high.
Dekkers talks fast, too, his European twang not slowing him a bit. Sometimes, he likes to have two conversations at once, a feat made possible by the cellular phone he keeps attached to his hip -- he said he spends 20 hours a week on it.
For example, at the end of his lunch meeting earlier this month, Dekkers' cell phone rang as he was in the middle of telling two visitors about his no-carbohydrates diet. While talking about the personal sacrifices in not eating pasta and rice, he grabbed his cell phone and barked a 'hello.'
Within seconds, his conversation had switched from diets to how his contractors were going to fix the deck and pool at his Naples home. A minute or so later, he hung up his cell phone and seamlessly went back to talking about his diet. Flyin' high
Despite his role as the head guy, Dekkers has deferred to his marketing and sales staff to help get Florida Air soaring.
Marketing manager Dave Orbegoso said he hopes the airline will get a shot in the arm when it's cleared by the federal government to use J-31 Jet Stream airplanes. Those planes hold up to 19 passengers, as opposed to the 11-seaters Florida Air is currently using, and with two engines, it's also better to look at it.
'The J-31s will be great,' Orbegoso said. 'A lot of people are intimidated by a single-engine plane.'
Dekkers expects to get FAA approval on the new jets by next month.
The airline is also planning to use some creative price breaks to lure people into the planes. Sean Zola, head of sales at Florida Air, said one plan in the works is to give a 50 percent price break to any current student at a Florida college or university. Other discounts are planned with children and senior citizens, and Dekkers hopes to eventually sell fliers a Florida pass, which would be a prepaid card of trips, much like what subway systems in New York or Europe have.
Another price break Dekkers hopes to instill is for customers who buy tickets the day of a flight by walking up to the gate. Some big commercial airlines hike up the price on such a late purchase, Dekkers said.
'Why are you punished to come up and get a ticket?' Dekkers said. 'It's extra money for me, that I didn't count on.'
Questioned on his prices being high -- a round-trip flight to Fort Myers from Jacksonville, making two stops on the way, could cost more than $ 350 -- Dekkers responded that he will do whatever it takes to stay competitive, but he conceded that small airlines don't have the bank of capital as such airlines as Delta and Continental, so prices can only go so low.
Dekkers does have some financial support from sources other than customers. On one of the most notable backers is Hilliard, founder and former president of Green Bay, Wis.-based insurance company American Medical Security. Hilliard now lives in Naples, not far from Dekkers.
Dekkers and his marketing staff are hopeful that the financial support will help them get through the early turbulence of life in start-up commuter airline.
'I don't think Orlando and Jacksonville people know we are there,' Dekkers said. 'You could spend an arm and a leg on advertising and people still don't know you're there.' HITTING HOME
Florida Air makes two flights a day from Jacksonville to Sarasota and Sarasota to Jacksonville, each stopping once in Orlando. The flights from Jacksonville International Airport leave at 12:40 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., arriving at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport at 2:55 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. respectively. The flights to JIA leave Sarasota at 9:55 a.m. and 3:45 p.m. and arrive in Jacksonville at 12:10 and 6 p.m., respectively.
Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Florida)
September 07, 2000, Thursday, ALL EDITIONS
Landing fee waiver helps lure airline;
Florida Air
will fly to Florida cities starting in December; in addition, Southeast will
offer Atlanta service.
The new waiver of landing fees is already paying dividends at Sarasota-Bradenton
International Airport.
A new commuter airline that will launch service to five Florida cities in December chose Sarasota-Bradenton because it could save money on its landing costs, airport executive director Fred Piccolo said Wednesday.
Venice-based Florida Air will fly 19-seat Beechcraft planes to Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Marathon, Orlando-Sanford and Tallahassee. It plans seven daily departures and eight arrivals, though details were not available.
In addition, Largo-based Southeast Airlines plans to begin service from Sarasota
to Atlanta on Oct. 12, with a second flight added on Oct. 26.
"We think this is a great thing for the community," Piccolo said.
From 40 to 70 seats on Southeast's 108-passenger DC-9s will be offered at $ 69 one way, said airline spokesman Scott Bacon. The top fare for coach class is $ 129 one-way; business class is $ 189.
Southeast will not qualify for the break on landing fees, however, because it will fly only six days a week.
The new flights will help offset the loss of other airline service this year. Northwest Airlines dropped its two flights to Detroit until mid-December, TWA ends service to the airport on Saturday, and Comair will yank its four commuter flights to Orlando in November.
Piccolo was enthusiastic about Southeast's $ 69 fares to Atlanta, given that Sarasota-Bradenton loses thousands of passengers a year to the lower fares airlines offer at Tampa International Airport.
"This $ 69 to Atlanta puts a new wrinkle in the fare basis here," he said. "If people don't support this carrier, I don't know what the solution is for this community."
The Sarasota-Manatee Airport Authority formally approved the new landing- fee waiver policy Wednesday.
Current or new airlines that add service from Oct. 1 through February will avoid paying landing fees on those flights for one year if they meet several conditions.
Those include providing service to a city outside of Florida, continuing the flight for a full year, and becoming a "signatory" carrier on the five-year service contract with the airport.
To qualify for three months of free landing fees, a carrier can provide service within Florida for at least six months. Florida Air gets three months of waived landing fees under this policy.
The commuter airline, which has yet to start flying, was weighing whether to begin at Sarasota-Bradenton or at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, Piccolo said.
The landing-fee waiver, which will save the company at least $ 4,000 a month in fees, tilted the decision here, he said.
Florida Air is owned by Rudi Dekkers and Dale Kraus. Dekkers is co-owner of Huffman Aviation, a flight school and aircraft maintenance service at Venice Municipal Airport. He owns a similar operation called Ambassador Airways at Naples Airport.
Kraus owns the Venice Jet Center, a fixed-base operator also at Venice Municipal.
Southeast has been providing charter service for seven years with more than 200 flights each month in the southeastern United States.
The new Sarasota-Bradenton flights are its first "scheduled charter" service, Bacon said. The company is still certified as a charter airline, but it is now planning regularly scheduled flights.
"Southeast is convinced that the Sarasota and Manatee areas provide a sound economic base with sustained growth that will enable us to add other cities to our route system in the near future,'' said president Tom Kolfenbach.
The service will start Oct. 12 with a flight leaving Atlanta at 9:05 a.m. and arriving at 10:45 a.m. It will leave Sarasota-Bradenton at 11:35 a.m. and arrive at 1:15 p.m.
On Oct. 26, the airline will add a second flight and change the time of the first flight.
One flight will leave Sarasota-Bradenton at 8 a.m. and arrive at 9:40 p.m., and leave Atlanta at 3:10 p.m. and arrive at 4:50 p.m. The second flight will leave here at 5:40 p.m. and arrive at Atlanta at 7:20 p.m. It will leave Atlanta at 8:10 p.m. and arrive here at 9:50 p.m.
The News-Press (Fort Myers, FL)
February 14, 2001 Wednesday
Florida Air
flights to ease commute
BYLINE: Anne Mitchell, Staff
SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 1D
LENGTH: 604 words
Tallahassee among destinations offered
By ANNE MITCHELL The News-Press
Fort Myers will have a faster air link to Tallahassee starting Monday, something that many local business people as well as state lawmakers should welcome.
Florida Air, based in Venice, will begin four daily commuter flights each way from Southwest Florida International Airport to the state capital, one of five Florida routes the fledgling carrier is launching.
"I think it could convince me to stop driving," said Rep. Bruce Kyle (R-Fort Myers) when he heard the one-stop flight takes less than two hours.
Kyle said he's only twice flown the route because it's usually more convenient to drive the 356-mile distance.
"You have to fly via Atlanta, Orlando or Tampa and with the layover it's almost
slower than driving," he said. "At that point I might as well save the state
some money."
The fare is $161 each way ($189 if booked a week or less before departure), said Rudi Dekkers, chief executive officer.
The flight will take about one hour and 40 minutes, including a 20-minute stop in Sarasota for other passengers to get on or off.
Jinya D'India at Adventure Travel, Fort Myers, said she recently booked a local businessman on a Delta flight to Tallahassee via Orlando at $413. The outbound trip took 2 hours and 40 minutes, and the return about 41/2 hours because of a long layover.
"This will be a big help," she said of Florida Air. "I have a bunch of businessmen, teachers and staff from the university who go to Tallahassee a lot. They don't want to have to spend almost a day getting there," she said.
Commuter service to Marathon and Sarasota/Bradenton starts Thursday, Orlando and Jacksonville on Feb. 22, and Fort Lauderdale/Miami on March 1. Each route will have four flights each way daily.
Fares start at $59 one way to Sarasota and $84 to Marathon.
"Their Marathon service will appeal to leisure travelers as much as their proposed intrastate service will appeal to Southwest Florida business travelers," said Susan Sanders, director of aviation marketing services for the Lee County Port Authority.
Dekker, a native of Holland, and a resident of Bonita Beach, said he's a 40 percent owner of the airline, in partnership with Wally Hilliard of Green Bay, Wis.
They also operate Sunrise Airlines in Arizona with three aircraft.
For the first three months, Florida Air will operate 11-seat Grand Caravan turbo-prop aircraft, Dekker said. A fleet of 19-seat, turbo-prop Jetstreams are on order but not ready yet, he said.
Dekkers said he's been overwhelmed with the response from the public.
"We're taking reservations left and right. Tallahassee and Marathon are very popular and so is Jacksonville," he said.
He likened the service to "a bus in the air" and said he believes Florida Air's fares are about 30 percent below others for the same routes.
"We can go lower if people are behind us," he added.
Come summer, he wants to let kids under 12 fly free to Orlando and Marathon when accompanied by a parent, as a way of filling seats in the off-season.
He also wants eventually to sell $250 tickets for a week of unlimited travel around the state, bookable just one day in advance.
Florida Air also will fill in the gap when American Eagle pulls out of Naples Municipal Airport on April 20, offering service to Miami and Sarasota.
"When we made our business plan we said we would look for niches in the market," Dekker said.
The Business Journal
January 19, 2001
Aviator flies high with new service
Rudi Dekkers wants people to notice
when his new commuter airline starts flying from the Sarasota Bradenton
International Airport to Florida cities. He chose special colors for his 19-seat
planes dark-blue tops, light-blue bottoms and a bright-yellow tail.
"Everybody says it's ugly, but you remember it," Dekkers said. "It's a marketing thing, and it's fun."
Dekkers, 44, owns
Florida Air, which is scheduled to begin
intrastate flights at the airport in February. He has the necessary Federal
Aviation Administration certificates but awaits approval from the U.S.
Department of Transportation. Sarasota Bradenton International Airport will be
the hub for his new airline.
Dekkers has years of aviation business experience. He owns Huffman Aviation Inc., a flight school and aircraft maintenance facility at Venice Municipal Airport. He also owns Ambassador Airways in Naples, and he operated charter flight services for nine years. He has a fleet of 12 Jetstream J31 planes, wide-bodied aircraft with stand-up cabins. Florida Air operations will start with four of the aircraft, Dekkers said.
After daily flights, the planes will go to Venice each night. They will be serviced at Huffman Aviation, an FAA-approved Jetstream facility.
Florida Air will offer flights to Tallahassee, Orlando, Marathon, Fort Myers and Fort Lauderdale. Flights will make intermediate stops, with routes such as Sarasota-Orlando-Jacksonville. Intermediate stops will be for about 20 minutes.
"This gives us a chance to get more passengers," Dekkers said. "There's much less risk than with passengers from just one airport. And I believe this (routing) is needed for business people."
The majority of one-way Florida Air fares will range between $89 and $99. Passengers will be able to get tickets on the Internet or through travel agents.
"This is going to be very straightfoward, with basic prices,"' Dekkers said. "I will use travel agents because I think you should never change a winning team, and travel agents are a team of winning salespeople. Personalized business is very important."
Florida Air eventually will have 160 employees. Date Krause, owner of the Venice Jet Center, is the general manager.
Dekkers is working from a business plan that took two years to develop. He said he has found a niche in the airline business.
"Most commuter airlines get into trouble because they try to compete with the big boys," Dekkers said. "My routes are ones that are new, ones that are non-existing with the big boys. I'm not after the big business.
But Sarasota Bradenton International Airport is. It seeks a new airline after Southeast Airlines ceased service there Jan. 8. The Largo-based airline offered $69 one-way flights to Atlanta, but did not have sufficient passenger traffic in the three months it operated at the airport.
"Florida Air will have a sizable operation here," said Fred Piccolo, airport director. "It's hard for a new airline, but I'm hopeful this will work. The only intrastate service we have now is to Miami."
He said the Tallahassee flights probably will be very popular because of people going to Florida State University activities and to the state's capital on business.
Virginia Haley, director of the Sarasota Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the commuter flights will be a special boon for people involved in the Florida Legislature.
When traveling to Tallahassee in the past from Tampa International Airport, she recognized many passengers as Sarasota residents, business owners and politicians.
"I think this airline will be a good way to develop more corporate business," Haley said. "It would certainly help us within the state. Everyone here is hoping they'll get started before the legislative session is over.
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