If at first you don’t succeed try to fly again. That’s not exactly how the saying goes, but it just might be close enough for California Pacific Airlines (CPA). The carrier launched operations in late 2018 out of Carlsbad/Palomar Airport in Southern California, only to close up shop a couple months later. But that was just a pause, not the end. Founder Ted Vallas tells PaxEx.Aero that the carrier intends to resume operations and it has filed the initial paperwork with the Department of Transportation to realize that goal.
Yes, yes we are planning to resume service. Definitely!
– California Pacific Airlines Founder Ted Vallas
Vallas cites a “temporary stop to get away from the South Dakota weather” as part of the need for halting the operations on 28 December 2018.
But he believes that the market is right to try again now. The company must receive the appropriate licensing and operating authority from the DoT. That work is underway. The company filed the necessary documents under seal on 3 January 2020, requesting that they be treated as confidential owing to commercially sensitive details. The DoT published the filing on 6 January without any further details.
Vallas claims the “last thing we have with the DoT is setting the timeframe” for the resumption of service. Typically airlines must present financial details showing the business plan is viable and that they are appropriately backed to receive the permit to carry passengers. Other details like insurance coverage and filling key roles for maintenance and pilots are also included in the process.
Read More: Commercial service is back at Carlsbad: California Pacific finally set to fly
The future of California Pacific Airlines
Just what will a relaunched California Pacific Airlines look like? Vallas intends to resume the operation just as it suspended, “It will be exactly what we planned from the inception, growing to seven cities served” from McClellan Airport. Vallas also says that the company “Probably is going to bring the E170 back into the picture sooner than not,” though he did not provide further specifics on that intention.
The company initially operated with an Embraer E145 operated by Aerodynamics, Inc. CPA purchased Aerodynamics to acquire is operating certificate after multiple efforts to secure its own certificate as a startup carrier failed. When the CPA experiment shut down in early 2019 it also took the Denver-based Essential Air Service operations of Aerodynamics out of service. This time around the company expects to only operate the Carlsbad routes. Vallas sees continued growth in the area as helping to support his goal of a sustainable, home-town airline for the region.
The last service in Carlsbad by a network carrier came from United Airlines. That operation halted in 2015 as the EMB120 fleet retired. Cal Jet (operated by Elite Airways) briefly operated from the airport in 2017 and then the 2018 iteration of California Pacific gave it a go as well.
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The airline is done. No assets, no employees and a pile of debt.
Probably. But part of getting the license is a determination by the DoT that the finances are sufficient. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out.
Ted Vallas is not a low net worth individual. Why do you think he can’t fund it? Airlines are all full and making a ton of $ right now. Fuel is cheap. Why wouldnt it work? I did notice that marketing first time around was abysmal. Hopefully they’ll do better this time around.
Can and should are two different things. Also, I have to think that eventually he’ll get tired of burning cash on this effort, despite no indications thus far that is likely.
They need to go after old America West and Reno Air ex-employees, two great start-ups that the employees ran a on-time airline with 15 Min turn-around at Lindberg with outdoor or older gates that no other Big Airlines wanted to use
Carlsbad is too short to get anything without slats in and out of with a pax load big enough to make any money. This is what happens when people with money and no airplane operating experience try to start an airline.
Ted has some pretty extensive airline background, albeit from decades ago. I worked with him for a while back prior to purchasing ADI. I identified a number of carriers to possibly purchase. ADI was not one of them. It is sad to see things end like this.
Ted Vallas and his company under the name of California Pacific Air, previously SkyValue, and before that known as Aerodynamics, Inc., still owes his employees in Denver, Pierre and Watertown, SD, and probably Georgia, as well. He left a stack of unpaid fuel and maintenance bills and airport leases.
By the way, whatever it was Carlsbad Palomar Airline, dba CPAir, filed with USDOT has already been withdrawn: https://www.regulations.gov/docketBrowser?rpp=25&so=DESC&sb=commentDueDate&po=0&D=DOT-OST-2020-0002
Nice catch…I think I still have a copy of the original application. Also interesting that it says it was withdrawn at the DOT’s request, not the company’s.
They had a year to tidy things up. It seems that this is the end. Sad for Ted.There was a group theat was interested in purchasing the airline, but the assumed debt was too high, plus the money that had to be pumped in to start flying again. This is a case study in what NOT to do when attempting to start an airline.