When will California Pacific Airlines begin operations?

The airline was founded in 2009 by an 89-year man who proposed starting a new airline at McClellan-Palomar Airport. They plan on operating 4 Embraer E170 jets, and then own an additional 6 by 2015. The airline had already received its first Embraer E170 aircraft on July 6th, painted in the new California Pacific scheme. The Embraer E170 had earlier been operated by now-defunct Cirrus Airlines.

Ever since the airline received its first aircraft, we haven’t heard any news from the airline since. When is the airline scheduled to operate its first flight, and to where?

They were given an ultimatum by the FAA to submit an operations manual and obtain their remaining financing. However they have failed to do so and it now looks unlikely that they will ever fly.

Maybe they they have gotten another extension from the FAA?

Their facebook says:

Service to 7 cities in the US & Mexico using Embraer 170’s coming in early 2013 from CP Air’s Carlsbad home (CLD) in San Diego’s north county. (*-Pending FAA Approval)

I’d like to see them make it.

They had already gotten two extensions.

They have until February 25, 2013 to get their paperwork done:

nbclosangeles.com/news/local … 34921.html

Do they have any planes in their colors at Carlsbad-Palomar?

They have had one E-170 in the colors of California Pacific Airlines for months now.

Some Mode-S data coming from N760CP. Got 7 MsgCount from it. Using the Mode-S Miscode of 3C7121
Must have drove it around the airport or doing some engine testing on it… :stuck_out_tongue:
The Mode-S receiver near KCRQ Palomar airport picked it up today(Feb 21, 2013 10:56am-10:57am).

There was an article in the LA Times yesterday.

latimes.com/business/money/l … 7214.story

Spokesman Tom Morrow says they have requested another extension to March 10 and hope to have the process completed by that time and then begin operations about 6 months later. Owner Ted Vallas has invested more than $6 million so far.

And that plane is costing them $175,000 per month to sit there.

I emailed the writer of the LA Times story and his reply was: “the DOT told me yesterday that they had received an extension request that had yet to be posted. The DOT sent me a copy of the request via email.”

Good to hear. I really hope they make it.

The plane computers turned on today on the ground. Got the Mode-S alert this morning at 10:59am.
It didn’t fly today :frowning:

-----Original Message-----
From: Alert
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2013 10:59
Subject: Received Registration: N760CP (AA41C8)
Alert Time: 2013/03/20 17:58:50
Received Registration: N760CP (AA41C8)
Registration: N760CP
Altitude: 00200

How will this aircraft ever get-off the runway at LCRQ at MTOW. The Runway is short of 4900,’ and the specification for the aircraft on take-off is for roughly 5900,’ at MTOW. This means that in order to leave safely that the aircraft can only be partially filled, or that the fuel for the flight will have to be acquired at another airport. Either way it detracts from the viability of the business plan. It is a mystery to me on how this airline will make money or be able to fill their aircraft with people. The only other commercial airport besides San Diego International would be Brown field. Is Brown Field even licensed for commercial airline traffic on a regular basis? Brown Field, unlike Palomar Airport, has a 9000’ runway, which could accommodate an E-170 at MTOW. If the fact that he has spent six million dollars is correct, then he must have a good idea on how this is going to work. On the surface of things, with this new airline, it going to take a prayer to get off the ground.

They’re not flying that far - won’t need full tanks.

Agreed. The farthest I believe they are flying is MMSD; everything else is shorter than an equivalent SWA flight, no further east than KLAS. If an E170 could make KMSP-CYVR (1500sm) and KLAX-KLAS is 315sm, and neither flight is at MTOW, then full tanks and weight aren’t needed for the entire flight from wheels up to wheels down.

So obviously, the lighter the aircraft, the less runway it will need to depart.

My understanding is that most every flight except Los Cabos and Vegas will land in a California airport. You aren’t going to need MTOW to fly that distance.

BL.

[update]

FAA rejects Carlsbad commercial airline

Citing various deficiencies in its application, the Federal Aviation Administration has rejected a commercial airline’s bid to fly out of Carlsbad’s McClellan-Palomar Airport.

The FAA’s Western-Region division informed California Pacific Airlines’ owner Ted Vallas in an Aug. 7 letter that the airline has failed to meet minimum standards in areas such as safety, maintenance, and inspections. Cal Pacific in its application also failed to answer some questions posed by regulators, and left out at least one required section.

The FAA gave California Pacific a Sept. 13 deadline to resubmit materials. If that date passes, the FAA will officially terminate the certification effort.

utsandiego.com/news/2013/aug … on-vallas/

I really hope they resubmit. This, like I mentioned before, gives SWA, VRD, and JBU good competition for intra-California operations, as well as a decent regional carrier (Let’s face it; SKW is more than just regional, and QXE makes their runs mainly up to PDX), and using E170s should make it economical (profitable is another story).

Personally, if they were up and running now, I’d fly them instantly, as I have a trip to San Clemente that my family and I need to take, and it’s too expensive to fly into SNA, and because of time, would be just as expensive to get to SAN or LGB. Going into CRQ would shorten the trip tremendously. For now, we’re driving it (from SMF/MHR).

BL.

This goes to show you that Ted is not hiring the right people for this airline. If you look over the resumes submitted to the FAA/DOT for the leadership roles, these people have some qualifications, but their resumes are not outstanding. Even the new president and CEO, John Selvaggio, was a placeholder executive with Delta Song, Comair (when it was being liquified) and a number of other upstart operations that most are non existent today. If you have been following this company for any time, you know how many leadership positions were filled and then a few months later were vacant.

Because anyone with any real industry experience didn’t want anything to do with this operation as they knew that it’s chances of actually getting off the ground were about 5%.

The business plan was just too tenuous to get the necessary financing.