Whether troubled regional carrier ViaAir will continue its partnership with the Baton Rouge Metro Airport remains unknown, BTR officials say—mostly because the airport hasn’t heard from the airline in weeks.
“I’ve been emailing and calling them the past couple weeks to get confirmation on what their schedule is here going forward,” says BTR spokesman Jim Caldwell. “Just about a week ago, we noticed they cut back a lot on their Baton Rouge flights, and it also occurred at other airports. We’ve received no communication from Via about it.”
In February, Via temporarily discontinued its direct, nonstop service between Baton Rouge and Orlando amid soft demand, with plans to resume the service June 1. Then last month, the airline, blaming a pilot shortage, announced it would also cease its Baton Rouge-Austin service until May 23. Throughout the month of June, two round-trips would’ve been available weekly for both services.
But Via isn’t advertising flights for either route this summer. Rather, the soonest Baton Rouge-Austin flight scheduled appears to be Sept. 6, and no planned Baton Rouge-Orlando flights are visible on the airline’s booking website.
The carrier’s problems aren’t just isolated to Baton Rouge. Sudden cuts in service and spates of cancellations are also happening in Pittsburgh and Mobile, Alabama, where there’s been a similar weeks-long communication blackout between airport officials and Via.
As a result, BTR officials have pulled back much of their Via advertising, including removing the airline’s logo from an airport billboard ad along I-10 near the Corporate Boulevard exit.
“We’ve been doing very limited ads in recent months because we weren’t comfortable enough that they’d meet their commitments,” Caldwell says, noting BTR’s partnership with the airline is revisited on a monthly basis.
Advertising support was part of the standard airline incentive package BTR offered Via, also waiving Via’s landing fees and carrier-specific rents. However, the airport hasn’t given the carrier any upfront monetary incentives, says Caldwell. The eight-month partnership has had a few benefits, he adds, generating some revenue for the airport and ultimately bringing down other carriers’ passenger fares.
Still, Caldwell says BTR is constantly pursuing other airlines. It’s considering connecting with another small carrier, Allegiant, to secure a regular Orlando service.
“If things resume [with Via], we want assurances it’ll be a reliable operation customers can have faith in,” he says. “We really just don’t know at this point.”
Multiple calls and emails to ViaAir officials were not returned to Daily Report before this afternoon’s deadline.
