"Airline to stop flights to Palm Springs"

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Airline to stop flights to Palm Springs
By Debra Gruszecki
The Palm Springs (CA) Desert Sun


PALM SPRINGS - There'll be one less airline offering seasonal commercial
service to Canada, as Harmony Airways has decided to stop all scheduled
service to Palm Springs as of Monday, April 9.

The lost service by the Vancouver, British Columbia-based carrier to Palm
Springs International Airport seemed to come out of the blue.

But Brian Kidd, deputy director of aviation, said the impact from the
startup company founded by the entrepreneur David Ho in 2002 and landing
here in 2004 will be minimal.

Harmony Airways, a startup company operating a fleet of four Boeing 757
aircraft to New York, San Francisco, Calgary, Las Vegas and Hawaii, is
rolling out of Palm Springs 21 days earlier than its expected April 30
departure.

"We're actually losing six flights,'' said Brian Kidd, deputy director of
aviation at Palm Springs airport. "That's about 600 passengers at the most
for the whole month."

Other more stalwart air carriers serving the Canadian travel market will
keep their operations intact through the season, and are expected to return
next tourist season, among them:

WestJet, extending Calgary service to May 13.

Allegiant Air, continuing twice weekly service to Bellingham, Wash., a
popular borderline alternative for air travelers out of Canada, until April
14.

Alaska Airlines, which offers year-round service with a connection.

While Canadian David Patterson said it's true other travel options remain,
the news was unsettling.

"It's unfortunate," Patterson said. "It's one less mode of transportation to
get down here."

Patterson, sales director of Palm Mountain Resort & Spa, a Palm Springs
property that attracts clientele from the United Kingdom and Canada, said
guests liked to book flights with Harmony because it offered two flights a
week, offered convenient flight times and pared travel time.

"We booked a fair amount of business through them,'' Patterson said.

The news also comes on the heels of preparations by L.A./Ontario
International Airport on Monday to roll out ExpressJet service, which
announced recently that it is vacating its twice-a-day service from Palm
Springs to Houston as of May 2.

Ontario airport officials have touted ExpressJet's expansion as one of the
largest in the airport's 84-year history.

That component of ExpressJet is offering point-to-point service from Ontario
to medium-sized cities in the West with its 44 regional ERJ-145XR aircraft,
Kidd said, and competition is already starting to spring up in some of those
markets.

Meanwhile, Kidd said negotiations are continuing on a separate plane with
Continental Express to resume service to Houston next winter. No decisions
have been made, he said.

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