=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/c/a/2005/10/01/BUG8QF0RN3= 1.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, October 1, 2005 (SF Chronicle) Airline to end service to SFO/Discount carrier Independence Air hard-presse= d by rising fuel costs David Armstrong, Chronicle Staff Writer When fledgling low-cost carrier Independence Air started flying out of S= an Francisco International Airport in May, the occasion was marked with cake and speeches. On Friday, the struggling airline quietly announced plans to cease flying from SFO in two months, blaming high jet fuel prices. The 2-year-old carrier based in Dulles, Va., will continue to fly twice a day from SFO to Washington Dulles International Airport through the end of October, reduce service on the route to once a day in November, and end it altogether on Nov. 28, airline spokesman Rick DeLisi said. Independence Air's planned pullout puts a crimp in SFO's drive to land more low-cost carriers, which account for 15 percent of the airport's flights. "But overall, it won't have a huge impact, because they're not a big carrier here," airport spokesman Michael McCarron said. "'It could mean raised fares for that route; we hope not," he said, noti= ng that Delta Air Line's low-fare unit, Song, also flies twice a day between SFO and Washington Dulles. Independence Air blamed the cutbacks on the high cost of jet fuel, which has soared by 90 percent since this time last year. "We have 12 Airbus A-319s that we've been using on transcontinental rout= es to the West Coast. We are redeploying these planes on shorter routes in the Northeast," DeLisi said. "We can get greater fuel efficiency by flying those planes more frequently instead of deploying them on six-hour trans-con flights." Separately, American Airlines said Friday that it is immediately suspending 15 round-trip flights through Oct. 26 from its daily schedule to save money on jet fuel. None of American's flights to Northern California was affected. If fuel prices drop, the flights will be reinstated, an American Airline spokesman. DeLisi said high costs, not customer dissatisfaction, prompted Independence to trim flights to SFO, as well as Los Angeles and Seattle. Independence, he said, will continue to serve Las Vegas, which will be its only Western destination. "Our West Coast flights were doing very well," he said. "San Francisco d= id extremely well for us in terms of attracting customers." SFO has scrambled in the past few years to attract discounters, as low-fare carriers have grabbed a growing share of the airline market. Meanwhile, SFO's smaller transbay rival, Oakland International Airport, has prospered by offering flights on JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines. Neither the popular JetBlue nor the discount market leader Southwest, which left SFO in 2002, fly from San Francisco. SFO offers service on discounters AirTran, WestJet, Frontier, Midwest, Song and the new US Airways, which is emerging from Chapter 11 as a discount carrier in a merger with America West. Ted, the low-fare brand of United Airlines, and ATA, currently in Chapter 11, also fly from SFO. In June 2004, after a long and very public national courtship, SFO was anointed as the operational headquarters for yet another low-fare carrier, Virgin America Airlines, a brainchild of the British entrepreneur Richard Branson. But, 16 months later, Virgin America has yet to lock in financing, and t= he startup appears to be a long way from flying anytime soon. Independence Air, formerly known as Atlantic Coast Airlines, was an operator of United Express regional jets for United before going out on its own with a new name in 2003. Earlier this year, Wall Street analysts predicted that Independence, whi= ch lost $192.2 million in 2004, will have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to survive in the bruising airline business, which is troubled by low fares and excess capacity, as well as stubbornly high fuel costs. Indeed, Independence also said Friday that it will lay off 600 of its 3,400 employees and slash its flights nationwide to 230 daily departures from 350 in a bid to stay out of Chapter 11. E-mail David Armstrong at davidarmstrong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx --------------= -------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2005 SF Chronicle