Startup carrier's walk-ins get deal

By Dawn Bryant

The Sun News

For the next few days, travelers who can make it to the Myrtle Beach Direct Air ticket counter at the Myrtle Beach International Airport can get round-trip tickets for half price.

The "Family Ties" promotion is intended to introduce the startup carrier to the community and help get passengers on the outgoing flights, said Ed Warneck, the carrier's president.

Myrtle Beach Direct Air starts its service March 7 and will fly to Newark, N.J., Niagara Falls, N.Y., and Pittsburgh.

The sale will be from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The deal, aimed at locals, is good only in person at the ticket counter, not through the Web site or toll-free number. At half price, a round-trip ticket would cost about $99, not including taxes.

Travelers will buy vouchers to use when booking flights for Myrtle Beach Direct Air's first season, which ends Oct. 31.

"It's very simple. We need people to try our flights," Warneck said. "In order for us to be successful, we have to have people on the planes flying out of this area."

The sale, Warneck hopes, will help Myrtle Beach Direct Air avoid the trouble filling planes that other carriers have suffered. Last year, Hooters Air called it quits in Myrtle Beach, and AirTran decided it would not return.

Direct Air is one of two new carriers at the airport in 2007. Another charter, Southern Skyways, will start service March 2 to Charleston, W.Va., Allentown, Pa., and Cincinnati. Spirit expands its service Feb. 15 with flights to its hub in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Local leaders wished Myrtle Beach Direct Air luck as it announced the program Thursday at the airport.

"It is a delight to know we have another airline with a Myrtle Beach name on it," Horry County Council Chairwoman Liz Gilland said.

Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, a marketing group, is spending about $200,000 in each of Direct Air's three destinations promoting the flights, said Mickey McCamish, Golf Holiday's president.