Pro Air

Pro Air was a United States airline founded by Kevin Stamper in July 1997 to serve the centrally located Detroit City Airport in Detroit, Michigan. Its headquarters were in the Lower Queen Anne area of Seattle, Washington.^[1]

Code data

• IATA Code: XL (P9 was also used)
• ICAO Code: PRH
• Callsign: Prohawk

History

Pro Air charged extremely low fares and saw high load factors on most of its flights, but many of its flights were delayed with mechanical and crew problems.

When Pro Air 737's went under C Maintenance Check, Spirit Airlines, Pan Am Clipper Connection, and Casino Express operated their flights for them. A Pan Am 727 collapsed the fence at the end of runway 33 in DET, due to having to "rev" the engines to meet the short runway takeoff length of 5000 ft.

Pro Air required its initial employees to go "door to door" in the Metro Detroit Area and pass out flyers promoting the airline. The airlines first hub/flight crew base was in Indianapolis. Most employees moved to the Metro Detroit Area when the Detroit City Airport hub was started in 1998.

Pro Air was in direct competition with Northwest Airlines on all of their routes. They originally started with one fare for everybody, but about 18 months afterwards they went to tiered fares with advance purchase requirements. They also had originally served full meals in coach (in addition to first class) but scrapped the program after realizing that the cost of the meal accounted for, on average, 10% of the fare that the customer paid. They were known for their signature "hot meal" service (even on the 35 minute DET-MDW route) in First Class along with premium alcoholic beverage service, and were the only airline to charge a mere $2 for beer and wine in Economy class (mixed drinks were $3).

Pro Air pioneered one of the lowest fares on the DET-LGA-DET route at $59 each way (which has been topped by Spirit Airlines $0.01 fares). Founders Fares were released for those who already flew them as a 'thanks'. GM & Chrysler also had programs to put their travelers on Pro Air on routes they flew at a mere $30 each way fare for employees and family. After slightly more than 3 years in the air Pro Air was grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration on September 18, 2000 for numerous regulatory violations and its aircraft were quickly repossessed by the lessor.

Services

Pro Air operated services from Detroit City to several destinations including Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Chicago Midway Airport, New York LaGuardia Airport, Orlando International Airport, Fort Myers, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Newark, Orlando, Philadelphia, Seattle, Atlanta and Tampa. Due to Detroit City's short runways limiting the amount of fuel the aircraft could carry on takeoff, flights to Seattle and Florida stopped in Chicago and Atlanta, respectively. Tickets could be purchased for just the Chicago-Seattle or Atlanta-Florida portions of the flights.

Fleet

It operated a small fleet, starting with two Boeing 737-400s, and expanding to three Boeing 737-400 and one Boeing 737-300 aircraft. The 737-400 had a configuration of 138 coach and 8 first class, with slightly increased pitch in both classes compared to other major airlines. They had MD-90 airplanes on order, but they shut down before they acquired the first one, but not before it was painted. Just before their demise, General Motors (GM) had been in talks to offer their three corporate-configured Saab 2000 turboprop aircraft to Pro Air, indicating that they would choose which routes and frequencies the aircraft would operate on as Pro Air Express flights; however, the deal was never consummated due to the shut down.^[2]

The planes had special flaps in order to facilitate takeoff from Detroit City Airport on the short runways.

References

External links

• Pro Air (Archive)
• Pro Air Former Fleet Detail