TRAVEL : Putting on Grand Airs in Golden Triangle

Champagne and caviar are to MGM Grand Air what soft drinks and peanuts are to other domestic carriers.

And now the luxury airline, which most recently had been offering upscale charter flights, has unveiled what the company dubs the “Golden Triangle” of scheduled service to Los Angeles, New York and Las Vegas, which is the hub.

The airline has one goal: carrying guests in style to the airline’s sister company, the opulent MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.

Last week, the airline began servicing the three cities. Tickets range from $364 for a round trip between LAX and Las Vegas to $2,084 for a round trip from Los Angeles to New York.

For those prices, travelers on Grand Air get more than just passage. They get the royal treatment, with fine cuisine served on a plane whose interior resembles the ornate lounge of some four-star hotel with a French name and highbrow attitude. The floor is lined with a plush burgundy carpet and the walls are painted a muted pink. Brass seems to shine from everywhere.

“It’s probably the most comfortable, luxurious commercial airline in the world,” said Robin Leach, host of TV’s “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” and a frequent flier on MGM Grand Air. “You really feel as if it’s your own private plane.”

The airline’s concentration on first-class is unique in today’s commercial airline industry, where the trend has been toward stressing business class service, according to Christopher Chiames, spokesman for the Air Transport Assn. of America.

Yet this is not the first time that Grand Air has offered scheduled flights. And, for most of its life, the airline has lost money.

The company began flying from Los Angeles to New York in 1987 offering only first-class. To bolster revenue, the airline added coach service in 1990.

In 1993, Grand Air shut down its scheduled service and handled only charter flights, shuttling NBA basketball teams, rock groups and the White House press corps, among others.

Although Grand Air contends that this time its focus on Las Vegas will make the company successful, its limited schedule might discourage travelers who need more flexibility, Chiames said.

The airline flies coast to coast only four times a day, and not on Saturdays. The Las Vegas leg of service is even less frequent, with one flight from New York and another from Los Angeles on Thursdays and Sundays.

“It could be a problem (for me),” Leach said. “You’ve really got to plan your flying.”

Airline industry analysts said that Grand Air’s luxury and the allure of Las Vegas should keep the airline alive, but they said there are not enough first-class travelers to make it a high roller in the commercial airline industry.

The first regularly scheduled flight from New York to Las Vegas on Sept. 9 had 26 seats filled out of a possible 34, and each plane needs to carry at least 19 paying guests to cover its costs, said company President Robert L. Gould.

“They have a break-even prospect at best--as a feeder for the (MGM Grand) hotel,” said Jason Ader, senior casino analyst for Smith Barney Inc. in New York, who tracks the airline because of its relationship to MGM’s hotel.

Grand Air, however, could dominate the market for first-class travel to Las Vegas from New York, where Grand Air will be one of the only carriers offering a direct flight, Ader said.

Grand Air passengers will find such amenities as crystal instead of plastic cups, china instead of microwaveable containers, and linen instead of a paper napkin.

Leather seats are placed single file along both sides of the plane and can swivel 180 degrees.

The aircraft’s bathroom is twice the size of those on most planes. And the jets have staterooms, two on the DC-8s and four on 727s, that are similar to sleeping compartments on trains.

When the seats are in their upright positions, each stateroom accommodates four people. But the seats also fold down and form a double-size bed that takes up virtually the entire stateroom.

Each passenger is greeted at the door and escorted to a seat by one of five flight attendants. They bring a lavish spread of food and beverages, served on dining tables that pull out from the wall and are roughly three times the size of a card table.

For dinner, warmed gourmet nuts and caviar come first, followed by hot and cold hors d’oeuvres, salad, sorbet and entrees such as Chateaubriand and beef Wellington, fettuccine a la Newburg and rabbit bonfit ravioli.

Dessert is tira misu or apple strudel, cookies and fruits and cheeses.

Such luxury, said Gould, is what MGM Grand Air passengers demand.

“We won’t compete on price, we’ll compete on service,” Gould said.