Ex-America West exec hopes to start airline

By John G. Edwards
Review-Journal

      The co-founder and former chief executive officer of America West Airlines says he is "reasonably certain" he will raise the $50 million needed to start a long-haul airline based in Las Vegas this summer.
      Mike Conway, the former America West executive, said he has commitments for 80 percent of the $50 million private placement of stock and hopes to raise some of the remaining funds from Las Vegas area investors.
      "We have put more than two years and $3 million into the planning for the new Las Vegas-based airline," Conway said.
      "While local support was initially slow in forming, we are very much encouraged that the Las Vegas community is now starting to come to grips with the airline capacity problem," Conway added, "realizing that the issue is not going to be solved by wishful thinking as to what other airlines might do in the future, and that a well-financed new airline, based in Las Vegas, whose total focus is Las Vegas, is what is needed."
      Conway said a major investment commitment has been received from a large Las Vegas hotel, which he declined to identify. He is optimistic the remaining investments will come from nongaming entities and individuals in Southern Nevada.
      He declined to identify the tentative name for the airline, but previous reports indicate it is likely to be called National Airlines.
      Conway intends to use Boeing 757 aircraft with 175 seats, of which 22 would be first-class. The airline would have nonstop flights to both coasts, improving accessibility for East Coast visitors who often must take flights that stop in hub airports such as Dallas and Chicago.
      He anticipates the airline will have 12 aircraft in use at the end of the first year of operations.
      Conway has told McCarran International Airport officials that he will need as many as five gates initially in the new D Terminal, which is scheduled to open in June.
      The airline expects to employ more than 2,000 workers in Las Vegas within the first five years, Conway said.
      Efforts to organize a new airline come in the wake of evidence that established airline carriers have constrained growth in airline passenger traffic in Las Vegas. Analysts say airlines are assigning new aircraft to nontourist markets, chasing business travelers who pay higher fares.
      America West, launched in 1983 after two years of planning and $18 million in equity investments, employs 10,000 people. It is the only airline formed after the industry deregulated in 1978 that has achieved major airline status of more than $1 billion in annual revenue.
      Another America West co-founder, Mike Roach, is involved in a recently announced partnership with Reno Air founder Joseph Lorenzo in an effort to launch a Laughlin-based airline.