Ultimate Air Shuttle Pulling Out of Burke Lakefront, Ending Cleveland-to-Cincinnati Flights – for Now
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.
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. The route was popular with lawyers, bankers and other business travelers – until the pandemic brought business travel to a near-halt in early 2020.
“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 pandemic isn’t cutting us many breaks, still.”
Pawlak, however, isn’t ruling out a resumption of service, perhaps next year, if business travel picks up.
The carrier’s last flights will be Dec. 16. The company will lay off nine employees, based in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Green, Pawlak said.
Cleveland 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. He noted that leisure travel is making a much quicker comeback in Cleveland than business travel.
“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.
Travel experts say it could be another year or two before business travel returns to pre-pandemic levels.
Ultimate launched service from Burke in 2015, the first scheduled flights from the small downtown airport in nearly a decade. The Cleveland-to- Cincinnati flight was an immediate hit, flying between Burke and Cincinnati’s small Lunken Airport, just east of downtown. In fact, Ultimate had plans to increase the route to three times daily in 2020, just as the pandemic hit.
The carrier shut down in March 2020, when travel came to a halt worldwide. It restarted in July of that year, but shut down again in September. Then, in April 2021, Ultimate tried again – launching Cleveland to Cincinnati flights, then Cincinnati to Atlanta and Cincinnati to Nashville routes.
“We had some days that were sold out, and others that were in the single digits,” saw Pawlak. The company flies 30-seat Dornier 328 jets and needs 20-plus passengers per flight to make the business model work.
“It’s really disheartening, where we were pre-COVID and where we are now,” he said. “We’re very hopeful that when the pandemic is gone and business travel is back, Ultimate Air Shuttle will be back, too.”
For now, Ultimate will concentrate on another side of its business, Ultimate JetCharters, providing charter service primarily for sporting events and casino junkets. Pawlak said the company can’t keep up with demand for charter flights.
For example, in the short time since it was announced that the University of Cincinnati would play in the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 31, the company has logged numerous calls requesting transportation to Dallas. “We could have filled 10 planes,” he said. “But we have no availability.”
Compounding the problem: About half of the company’s 10 aircraft are out of commission, in need of maintenance and awaiting parts, in some cases from overseas.
The company also intends to launch a third aspect to its business, Ultimate Jet Management, offering operational support to businesses with their own aircraft.
Despite success in other areas, Pawlak said the company wants and intends to bring back scheduled air service to Cleveland, Cincinnati and other cities, when the time is right.
“We have such an investment in the brand,” he said. “We are Ohio’s only intrastate service – that’s really important to us. It’s an economic engine for the state. We want to bring it back as soon as it’s feasible.”
Read more:
Ultimate Air brings fun back to flying on new Cleveland-to- Cincinnati route (photos)
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