A new airline of sorts is planning to begin flights to and from Las Vegas.  The airline, LV Air, is planning to use 767 aircraft on charter flights and they’ve got some big plans.  They plan to refit these 767 with a Las Vegas-like interior including luxury seating, mood lighting, etc.  They also promise inflight texting and video as well as iPads for entertainment. 

But here is the one that I kind of balk at happening:  Holograms of celebrities for safety briefings. 

Initially, these flights will be between New York City and Las Vegas and the business model calls for casinos to buy seats on these flights for their high rollers.  What’s left over will be sold as charter space.

I don’t believe this will succeed, however.  It’s almost a certainty that the promised 767 aircraft are going to be very old models that will likely be expensive to refit with these luxuries and even more expensive to maintain afterwards.  Reducing the seat count to offer luxury seating to these high rollers will raise costs per available seat mile considerably and require higher and higher load factors for each flight. 

More importantly, if you’re a high roller who enjoys private flights to Las Vegas, why would you want to fly on this aircraft?  And what do you really get that you can’t enjoy in first class seating on an airline providing better frequency and schedule?

Holograms and iPads might attract the curious but they’re unlike to attract the customers long term.

So far, I cannot find information on the aircraft or what airport(s) they plan to fly into and out of.  There is a nifty video on their website but that’s it:  it’s a nifty video.  Interestingly, the video appears to show a 767-300 painted in LV Air colors rather than a -200 model. 

This strikes me as something like the trans-Atlantic all business class airlines from a few years ago.  It’s likely the wrong aircraft for such services and too many people have too many different options.  Even if it does experience some success initially, that will only cause major airlines to attack it on price and schedule. 

This airline says it will start service in 2011 (again, I cannot find a certain date for starting) which would imply work on these aircraft has already started.  They also project they can move more than 2 million passengers in the first 2 years.  I’m skeptical to say the least.  All of this is predicated on the idea that seat capacity to Las Vegas has been dramatically reduced over the past few years and it appears that they haven’t paid attention to the reason for that, namely that demand is down as well. 

I’ll be mildly surprised if they even start flying and I will be exceptionally surprised if they enjoy any success at all.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax