OneJet no longer offering service in Milwaukee

OneJet, the startup air carrier that was using small jets to cater to business travelers, is no longer offering service in Milwaukee.

Officials at Mitchell International Airport, owned and operated by Milwaukee County, have not been informed by OneJet about any service elimination, but, “OneJet has not flown from MKE since June,” Mitchell spokesman Harold Mester confirmed in an email Tuesday.

MKE is the International Air Transport Association identifier for Mitchell.

Even though it isn’t flying out of Milwaukee anymore, “MKE has not been notified that OneJet is no longer serving the airport,” Mester said. “OneJet has indicated it is transitioning its fleet to regional jets and intends to restart service, but no timeline was given.”

OneJet’s online reservation system no longer lists Milwaukee as a service point. The system shows the cities it serves are Albany and Buffalo, New

York; Hartford, Connecticut; Indianapolis and Pittsburgh.

Emails to OneJet’s customer service department as well as to CEO Matthew Maguire were not returned.

A call to Maguire was met with a message that his voicemail was full and not accepting new messages.

Lawsuit in Pittsburgh

Meanwhile, the Allegheny County Airport Authority, which operates Pittsburgh International Airport, has filed suit against OneJet seeking the return of incentive money paid to the carrier to expand service there.

According to the Pittsburgh PostGazette, the airport authority sued OneJet on Aug. 10 seeking the return of $763,000 out of $1 million in incentive funds the carrier received in exchange for promising to establish and maintain 10 nonstop destinations from Pittsburgh.

The Post-Gazette reported that OneJet initially began service to 10 destinations. But that has since dwindled to two — Hartford and Indianapolis.

Milwaukee service

OneJet’s business model was to use small, eight-seat jets to focus on city pairs that lost nonstop service as the airline industry consolidated. The business model focused on business travelers.

The carrier had flown nonstop between Milwaukee and Pittsburgh since 2015.

In October 2017, the carrier announced that it was planning to expand its Milwaukee service and establish an operating base at Mitchell.

OneJet received financial backing from a group led by former Midwest Airlines CEO Timothy Hoeksema.

Hoeksema could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

OneJet has not received any incentives from Mitchell.

In June, OneJet carried 217 passengers to and from Mitchell. A year earlier, it carried 239 passengers to and from Mitchell.

For the full year 2017, OneJet carried 4,083 passengers to and from Mitchell for a market share of 0.06 percent.