![]() ![]() “We could have filled 10 planes,” he said. ![]() 31, the company has logged numerous calls requesting transportation to Dallas. Pawlak said the company can’t keep up with demand for charter flights.įor example, in the short time since it was announced that the University of Cincinnati would play in the Cotton Bowl on Dec. “We’re very hopeful that when the pandemic is gone and business travel is back, Ultimate Air Shuttle will be back, too.”įor now, Ultimate will concentrate on another side of its business, Ultimate JetCharters, providing charter service primarily for sporting events and casino junkets. “It’s really disheartening, where we were pre-COVID and where we are now,” he said. The company flies 30-seat Dornier 328 jets and needs 20-plus passengers per flight to make the business model work. “We had some days that were sold out, and others that were in the single digits,” saw Pawlak. Then, in April 2021, Ultimate tried again – launching Cleveland to Cincinnati flights, then Cincinnati to Atlanta and Cincinnati to Nashville routes. It restarted in July of that year, but shut down again in September. The carrier shut down in March 2020, when travel came to a halt worldwide. ![]() In fact, Ultimate had plans to increase the route to three times daily in 2020, just as the pandemic hit. The Cleveland-to- Cincinnati flight was an immediate hit, flying between Burke and Cincinnati’s small Lunken Airport, just east of downtown. Ultimate launched service from Burke in 2015, the first scheduled flights from the small downtown airport in nearly a decade. Travel experts say it could be another year or two before business travel returns to pre-pandemic levels. “While we are saddened by the news of their departure, we are hopeful of their intentions to return once business travel begins to see recovery,” he said. He noted that leisure travel is making a much quicker comeback in Cleveland than business travel. The company will lay off nine employees, based in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Green, Pawlak said.Ĭleveland airport director Robert Kennedy, who oversees operations at both Burke and Cleveland Hopkins, said the departure of Ultimate Air will have a minimal effect on airport finances. Pawlak, however, isn’t ruling out a resumption of service, perhaps next year, if business travel picks up. “The pandemic isn’t cutting us many breaks, still.” “We built this thing around the business traveler,” said Rick Pawlak, senior vice president at Ultimate Air, which is based at the Akron-Canton Airport. The route was popular with lawyers, bankers and other business travelers – until the pandemic brought business travel to a near-halt in early 2020. Since 2015, the carrier has offered a popular weekday route to Cincinnati, connecting two of Ohio’s largest cities via a scenic, 45-minute flight. GREEN, Ohio – Ultimate Air Shuttle, the only carrier offering commercial flights from Cleveland’s Burke Lakefront Airport, is ending service next week, another victim of the coronavirus pandemic. ![]()
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