FAA Says Regent Air May Lose Operating Certificate

Regent Air, the debt-ridden luxury airline that suspended operations Feb. 28, faces possible revocation of its operating certificate, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman confirmed Friday.

Regent, a privately held Los Angeles-based airline, surrendered its certificate to the FAA in Los Angeles after suspending its “all-frills” Los Angeles-Newark, N.J., flights, which cost $785 one way. The action put the airline out of operation, at least temporarily.

The FAA said it initiated revocation proceedings against Regent after the airline failed to provide required information on a reorganization of the company by a May 1 deadline. The FAA said it told the airline about the May 1 deadline in a March 28 letter.

Regent, however, issued a press release Friday stating that the FAA did not tell it that its operating certificate was in jeopardy. “There are no revocation proceedings as far as we’re concerned,” said Jeff Ruffolo, Regent’s vice president for corporate communication.

Regent, which has undergone several management changes since January, faces other problems.

New York state authorities have levied a $58,000 fine against the airline for false advertising in that state. Lanie Accles, a spokeswoman for the New York state attorney general, said Regent claimed in newspaper advertisements that advance payments for bargain-rate tickets for New York-Honolulu flights would be placed in escrow, when the money was actually being used to fund the airline’s operations. Regent has denied any wrongdoing.

Subsequently, Regent agreed to put the money from all advance ticket sales in an escrow account, and Accles said there is now $1.75 million in the account.

On Friday, Ruffolo said Regent would take the money from the account and refund it to customers so “no one thinks we are a fly-by-night airline.”