NY airline pulls out of Vegas

Friday, July 31, 1998 | 11:19 a.m.

Tower Air has pulled out of the Las Vegas market and has no plans to return, saying it couldn't fill its 747s with enough passengers to and from New York.

Leo Devine, a spokesman for the airline in New York, said the company discontinued service earlier this month after flying the route since Sept. 4. It had operated four flights per week.

Devine said Tower executives made the decision because the airline couldn't consistently fill enough seats to make the route lucrative. The airline flies Boeing 747 jumbo jets, the largest commercial jet in the air, with a capacity of nearly 400 passengers.

"It's a permanent break," Devine said. "The decision was made for reasons of economic feasibility on the JFK (John F. Kennedy International Airport) to Las Vegas route. It was difficult to reach the capacity necessary to be profitable."

A spokeswoman with Reno Air said the discontinuation of the flights won't affect the Reno-based carrier's code-share arrangement with Tower Air.

Connie Huff, director of corporate communications for Reno Air, said Tower would continue to book its passengers on Reno Air flights to Los Angeles, one of Tower's minihub centers. Tower flies a number of international routes, including flights to Athens, Paris and Tel Aviv, Israel, and Reno Air would shuttle customers to connect with flights at Los Angeles International Airport.

Tower, which flew the New York-Las Vegas route for $328 round trip, reported sluggish loads on the operation since its inception, which began as a twice-a-week schedule. The company had hoped to boost sales when it doubled the number of weekly flights to four, Thursday through Sunday, and announced the code-share agreement with Reno Air in January.

The Reno Air agreement, which took effect in February, allowed customers to fly coast to coast on the two partners for the same price as a New York-Las Vegas ticket.

The route was almost exclusively marketed to New Yorkers as the company chose to establish the carrier for business and leisure travelers to Las Vegas as opposed to Southern Nevadans going to the East Coast.

Publicly traded Tower Air stock closed Thursday at 3 1/16, just over its 52-week low of 3. In March, the company was at 6 5/8, its 52-week high.