Pride Air Shutting Down Temporarily

Pride Air, which bills itself as the nation’s newest coast-to-coast airline, has suspended operations nationwide, the San Diego operations manager confirmed Friday night.

Because of the airline’s tenuous financial status, other carriers are unlikely to honor the tickets of hundreds of passengers booked on Pride’s two daily flights between Southern California and the airline’s New Orleans hub, said Murray Bauer, Pride’s manager in San Diego.

The flights originate in San Diego and fly nonstop from Los Angeles International Airport to New Orleans, where the airline offers connecting service to Florida, he said. There are two return flights daily along the same route. Pride began service Aug. 1.

“It’s a tough situation right now,” Bauer said Friday. “There’s not much we can do other than being able to tell them we’re really sorry, but they’re going to have to go to another airline and buy a ticket.” The last-minute purchases are likely to be costly for travelers, he noted.

Pride began contacting passengers with reservations Friday afternoon, alerting them to the cancellation of all flights through Wednesday. Once service resumes, customers can use their tickets on other Pride flights or obtain refunds from the airline, according to Bauer.

Bauer said he was uncertain if employees had been furloughed during the interruption in operations. Many Pride pilots and flight attendants are based in Los Angeles, which also is the site of the airline’s nationwide reservations center. Pride has about 15 employees at LAX and three employees in San Diego.