Viva Air

PAN AM IV. lol...They are going to last hummm...Not more than 6 months after they start operations, if ever....Boeing 727 and 747, Indian operator? RUNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe Al Qaida is supplying the green, who knows....
Another airline deemed for failure, oh well... When are people going to learn?

Well, this is funny. Let's have more airlines here in Dom Rep than guagua carriers. This is so stupid. Yeah 2 747s and we are about to face war with Iraq, this is such a funny story. Let's fly 5 daily flights S Domingo-Bombey-Islamabad

I still remember Tower Air's circa 1972 747-200s that flew to Santo Domingo as recently as three or four years ago. In particular, I remember the overhead bins held up by duct tape. Mercifully, Tower Air went away. I wonder if Viva might have taken one of the old Tower Air planes from the Arizona desert?

I'm in the airport business, and we have a saying: "Friends don't let friends start airlines."

Porfio, you are absolutely right.

Tower, APA, Air Atlantic, Queen Air - all those things are part of the past. In case if there is no single airline that flies between US and DOM it is a good business to start it, but when we see how recently Mexicana left us, how Aerocontinente was flying. NO WAY! Please, no more airlines. Everyone already has its preffered airline. Who needs those old Indian 747s? Jumbo was created for longhaul flights, not for games. Airline indusrty is a completely fraud now.

So, let's clean our streets first, then we'll get more toursts and probably we'll need those BQ's flights to Europe.

Porfio_Rubirosa

Porfio_Rubirosa said:

I still remember Tower Air's circa 1972 747-200s that flew to Santo Domingo as recently as three or four years ago. In particular, I remember the overhead bins held up by duct tape. Mercifully, Tower Air went away. I wonder if Viva might have taken one of the old Tower Air planes from the Arizona desert?

I'm in the airport business, and we have a saying: "Friends don't let friends start airlines."

Click to expand...

What do you do?

aviastar said:

Porfio, you are absolutely right.

Tower, APA, Air Atlantic, Queen Air - all those things are part of the past. In case if there is no single airline that flies between US and DOM it is a good business to start it, but when we see how recently Mexicana left us, how Aerocontinente was flying. NO WAY! Please, no more airlines. Everyone already has its preffered airline. Who needs those old Indian 747s? Jumbo was created for longhaul flights, not for games. Airline indusrty is a completely fraud now.

So, let's clean our streets first, then we'll get more toursts and probably we'll need those BQ's flights to Europe.

Click to expand...

Agreed. Don't forget Quisqueya Airways, Hispaniola Airways, and others who tried to fly to the US and failed miserably.

Now we are trying to fly to Europe. Aeromar's ambition is tooooooooooo cool! They wanna fly to Europe, they'll defeat AF, UX, IB, UX, MP, DE, LT and others.

Viva Airlines/Auxer

I think they have a good chance to make it. They are getting planes for cheap and financing to operate for a few years.

There are also rumors that Carl Icahn who has been trying to grab National Airlines (now chapter 7) may be involved.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/archives/2001/mar/12/511551539.html?"carl+Icahn",+"national+airlines"

Robert Scott is also a CPA working for a firm in Michigan (Old Mission Assessment http://www.omacorp.com/ ). Ian Herman and Bob Scott pictures can be seen on the Old Mission' web site.
The CEO of that Michigan company is called Ian Herman.

Ian Herman and Carl Icahn were together when they made an offer of $180 millions to National Airlines in 2001.

http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2002/Jan-26-Sat-2002/business/17957602.html

Carl Icahn was also seen in National Airlines offices as recently as last november (only a few months ago). An ex-employee of National mentioned in a New Article in Las Vegas that he thought Carl Icahn was buying the airlines. At that point operations had ceased.

"A National employee who declined to be identified said he thinks the potential buyer is Carl Icahn, the billionaire financier who made a $180 million offer for the airline soon after it went into bankruptcy in December 2000. He said Icahn had been recently seen with several of his assistants in National's general office collecting documents."

See: http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2002/Nov-16-Sat-2002/business/20080987.html

National Airlines certificate was the only asset that National Airlines had left that could be disposed of during chapter 7 proceedings. Huge debts and all their airplanes were leased. It is not known if the certificate can be transfered.

Basically there seems to be connections between Carl Icahn, Ian Herman (Scott's boss), Bob Scott (Current Viva Airlines CEO), Hamilton Aerospace (aircraft maintenance comapny in Arizona where scott is also involved), and Falcon Air Express (will provide crews, some airplanes, maintenance, and training).

The fact that Viva/Auxer is currently looking for a US based airline of certificate, and National Ailines certificate may be available, and also because of all the connections between all parties involved, I think this may be larger than most people think.

I think they have a good chance to make it. Just my opinion.

Carl Ichan

Took TWA to bankruptcy. History will be repeated.

Different environment this time. Carl Icahn was getting tickets at a huge discounts from TWA to provide cheap vacation packages to his casinos in Las Vegas and hotels in the Caribeans.

Hopefully he'll make sure there is no flight service interuptions next time.

That is, "if" he is behind this....

Icahn

I thought Icahn had been banned from the airline industry for life. If not, he should have been.

On the pro-side, he did operate major airlines. On the con-side, he bankrupted or helped bankrupt three of them: Eastern, PeopleExpress and TWA. In fact, Eastern and PeopleExpress were intentionally destroyed. A good partner for Viva!?!?

Remember Martin Shagrue, the last President of Eastern? He was involved in Pan Am II. Somehow, his experience didn't help. It went bust.

I'll agree that Icahn's involvement, if it's real, would give Viva more credibility, but I don't know how much more. And I won't believe any of it until I see blue ribbon irrevocable financial backing and a niche business model that makes some sense (like JetBlue had). Cheap planes by themsevles are meaningless (look at Pan Am III and Tower Air). More Santo Domingo, Miami, San Juan, New York grouped routes are pointless.

For the person that asked, I work for a major airport concession company.

Ichan

Carl Ichan through lowestfare.com used to sell TWA tickets at 55 percent of the base fare (no matter the destination). He would make 25 % profit and the customer a 20 percent discount. He helped TWA to emerge from bankruptcy through the loan with the above mentioned agreement. Of course, years later he made tons of money and sent TWA through the drain. He is been actively pursuing other airlines business and he will cut a deal so he would be the only one making money.

My opinion: Stay away from him.

Porfio_Rubirosa: We are working on the same environment.

The question is: is he an owner or is just a customer of the new airline.

If he is part owner (Board Member) you can bet that this airline will make it. If he is just a sponsor to get it started, it could be difficult for this airline if he is just trying to get cheap tickets.

Based on his attempts to "buy" or "start" a new airline my guess is that he will be a minority or majority owner and will make sure the airline survives to meet his vacation packages requirements.

Sure he did take TWA to the ground but Viva has a better chance...the people already involved know about this and Icahn needs to make this one profitable on a longer time basis...

How many times can you fail the Bar Exam?

I am just wondering, do we need more carriers from SDQ to USA? Now Viva claims to fly there on Falcon Express' 727, Aerocontinente's ambition to enter SDQ JFK is about to become reality. Air Santo Domingo wants to go there too.

Well, people think that this route is something like LHR NYC, thinkig of what there are 4 airlines at the moment But here we'll have more airlines than daily flights.