OneJet’s future in Milwaukee remains unclear

Ultimate Jet Charters CEO says merger deal is off

The future of OneJet’s service in Milwaukee remains shrouded in mystery.

A OneJet representative said via email late Monday night that the carrier’s absence from Milwaukee is only temporary.

“We are currently in the midst of an exciting merger with Ultimate Jet Charters. During this transitional period we have had to restructure and decrease some of our services temporarily. Milwaukee is one of our affected cities. Rest assured we are working diligently to resume service as soon as possible, and this is only a temporary inconvenience,” Ashley Schantz, quality service manager for OneJet, said in an email to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel received at 11:56 p.m. Monday.

But Ultimate Jet Charters President and CEO John Gordon said Wednesday his company’s agreement with OneJet has been terminated.

“There is absolutely no acquisition or merger existing with OneJet, nor are there agreements to do so in the future,” Gordon said in a telephone interview.

The only existing connection between the two carriers is Ultimate Jet Charters flies OneJet routes under an existing contract between Hartford, Connecticut, and Pittsburgh and Buffalo and Albany, New York.

OneJet issued a press release on May 1 announcing “the completion of an acquisition agreement with Ultimate Jet Charters.”

Ultimate Jet Charters is based in North Canton, Ohio.

Milwaukee base hasn’t happened

On Tuesday, a spokesman for Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee said OneJet has not had any flights into or out of the airport since June.

“OneJet has indicated it is transitioning its fleet to regional jets and intends to restart service, but no timeline was given,” Harold Mester, a Mitchell spokesman, said in an email.

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.

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 Post-Gazette, 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. The carrier had flown nonstop between Milwaukee and Pittsburgh since 2015.

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.

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

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.