Vision Airlines, which built up a business in the air charter and tour business, has set up administrative offices in Suwanee and is embarking on an expansion to target vacationers in the Southeast.
Vision already flies from Atlanta to Louisville, Ky., and Biloxi, Miss., and plans to launch flights to Destin, Fla. on March 25. It is also launching service on more than a dozen other routes to Destin in late March and early April.
David Meers, chief operating officer for passenger operations, said the company started out operating air tours to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas and expanded into the air charter business, operating charters for the government, sports teams and businesses.
Vision last year launched airline flights from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to Louisville and has since added several other routes. Meers estimates the airline flights make up about a quarter of Vision's total business.
"We really built this business on tour packages," Meers said. "Our business model is to become a tour packages company that happens to be an airline."
For now, the airline is advertising sales such as a spring break promotion with $59 one-way fares to Destin from Atlanta and other cities. Like big airlines, Vision charges fees for checked bags: $15 to $25 for the first bag and $20 to $30 for the second. But Meers said the company aims to build the business by eventually selling vacation packages including flights, hotel and rental car, and he eyes Las Vegas-based Allegiant as a model.
"There's a lot more money in selling the ground than selling the air," Meers said, referring to hotel reservations and other non-flight aspects of the trip.
Colorado-based aviation consultant Mike Boyd said "there's very low risk involved" in Vision's strategy.
"If some of the markets don't work, then they leave real quick," Boyd said. "It's not like a huge investment."
Meers acknowledged that expecting all of the airline's new routes to be successful "would be arrogant."
"I hope that they pan out," he said.
After the airline launched the Atlanta to Louisville route in mid-December with 30-seat Dornier 328 turboprops, Meers acknowledged: "Truthfully, in hindsight, we launched that route at the worst time." It was just before the holiday season, and Atlanta-Louisville is primarily a business route. Vision is also going up against heavyweight Delta Air Lines on the route.
But, Meers said, "I don't want to go poke a large carrier in the eye. It's not our model." With only two 30-seat planes per day, "Why would a large carrier respond to us?" he asked.
The airline has about 700 employees, 50 of them in Atlanta.
Vision's offices in Gwinnett County are a far cry from Delta's sprawling headquarters campus near Hartsfield-Jackson. A small Vision Airlines logo marks a single glass door on the front of one entrance to a building buried within an office park. Inside, Vision operates a call center and has offices for the chief financial officer, general counsel and director of sales.
The airline opened the office about a year ago somewhat by chance, after hiring several executives who lived in the Atlanta area, Meers said. Other company officials are still based in Las Vegas, where Vision has roughly 120 people employees and runs its system operations center, he said.
The company "got the full court press" from Florida officials on moving their administrative offices to that state, Meers said.
‘I think for the moment we'll stay right here and continue to build our marketing offices," he said, adding that the airline may add some more routes out of Atlanta in the future.
"Will we try to ever become AirTran or Delta? No way. Will we go and cherry-pick a route? Yeah," Meers said.
Vision is in the process of growing its fleet to about 20 aircraft -- including Boeing 737s and 767s and Dornier 328 and 228 turboprops. And the company plans to grow in other ways, expanding its offices to the other side of the building and hiring more employees for its call center and other operations. Meers said the company's goal is to bring in a partner for investment in a few years or aim for taking the company public.
But airline consultant Bob Mann warned that Vision's strategy is not necessarily foolproof.
"Every airline out there is in the vacation business," Mann said, citing operations like Delta Vacations and other airline vacation package businesses. Even if a small carrier doesn't start out trying to take market share from other airlines, "the problem is, if they grow at all, they end up stealing from someone else."
And when that happens, "you always elicit some kind of competitive response," Mann said. "It's a very cutthroat business."
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