Disney Airlines?

[fireman17]

I've been reading thread after thread about how high airfares have become maybe it's time for Disney to start thinking about starting a air service. They could incorporate the price of airfare into vacation packages or do discounts throughout certain times of the year or pin codes too.
If they can cruise the seas how about own some air? How are your feelings on this anything I may have missed?

 

[msmayor]

Disney is all about MAKING money...and airlines are losing propositions. I can't see them doing this at all.

 

[ICF]

running a couple of boats out of a port in Florida is a lot different then providing flights from around the country to get to WDW or DL.

besides....given the cost of a trip to WDW or a Disney cruise, I dont think that a disney operated airline would be cheap.

 

[NatashaDisneyCM]

there has been talk about this for many, many years. Disney did have a plane. It is on property somewhere. lol
If they could make money at this, they would have many years ago.

 

[Carl]

With the cost of fuel going up, up, up, I don't see any profit in it - unless Disney were to offer some kind of First Class, Disney themed service. That might be workable. People will still pay a premium for something special.

 

[Swank]

Disney did consider this a while back, I believe they nixed it because they were afraid if a Disney Jet ever crashed then the negative publicity would be enormous.

 

[crashbb]

Where would they fly FROM? People come to WDW/DL from all over the country (and other countries, but I'm assuming you'd limit it to domestic travel). I cannot see this working, at all.

 

[msmayor]

With the cost of fuel going up, up, up, I don't see any profit in it - unless Disney were to offer some kind of First Class, Disney themed service. That might be workable. People will still pay a premium for something special.

Considering the way folks here gripe about the high cost of airfare, I seriously doubt they'd be willing to pay a premium just because the plane says "Disney" on the outside.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Would the Disney airline be allowed to bypass the TSA screening? I'd pay extra for that.

Or if Jasmine was the one doing my patdown.

 

[goofyernmost]

Yea....Disney has never been known to charge high prices for anything.

 

[chuckml]

Would the Disney airline be allowed to bypass the TSA screening? I'd pay extra for that.

Or if Jasmine was the one doing my patdown.

I'm down with this idea as well.

 

[Metro West]

Disney is all about MAKING money...and airlines are losing propositions. I can't see them doing this at all.

Yup...I agree with this.

 

[golfgal]

You can book your air through Disney reservation systems already, sure you pay more, but you can do it.

One thing about "high" airfares--if you buy your tickets at the "right" time, you won't pay an arm and a leg. I see so many people booking flights when they book their vacations, a year in advance often. This is the MOST expensive time to book a flight. Try pricing out a flight for Sept 2011 to Orlando, then try pricing one out for May 2011 (similar travel volume times) and note the price difference.

I just did a search for May 15-23 and Sept 19-26, May price $198, Sept Price $298. Take the search out to Feb 2012 (all the farther it would let me go) and that price is $298. Fares are at their lowest about 20-30 days before a flight. If you keep an eye on that May flight over the next week or two, I bet it goes down again.

 

[ICF]

You can book your air through Disney reservation systems already, sure you pay more, but you can do it.

One thing about "high" airfares--if you buy your tickets at the "right" time, you won't pay an arm and a leg. I see so many people booking flights when they book their vacations, a year in advance often. This is the MOST expensive time to book a flight. Try pricing out a flight for Sept 2011 to Orlando, then try pricing one out for May 2011 (similar travel volume times) and note the price difference.

I just did a search for May 15-23 and Sept 19-26, May price $198, Sept Price $298. Take the search out to Feb 2012 (all the farther it would let me go) and that price is $298. Fares are at their lowest about 20-30 days before a flight. If you keep an eye on that May flight over the next week or two, I bet it goes down again.

It may depend on your airline / city. I did a search for the same days you listed on Southwest from Indianapolis for flights that we would actually take (i.e. not leaving at 10pm) if we were going to fly down.

The May dates had a wide range of prices some more or less than what I chose but it ended up being $295. Which included a stop on the way down in Baltimore (I think it was) and a direct flight coming home.

The Sept flights were ALL $124 and the price was $269 for 2 non-stop flights.

 

[golfgal]

It may depend on your airline / city. I did a search for the same days you listed on Southwest from Indianapolis for flights that we would actually take (i.e. not leaving at 10pm) if we were going to fly down.

The May dates had a wide range of prices some more or less than what I chose but it ended up being $295. Which included a stop on the way down in Baltimore (I think it was) and a direct flight coming home.

The Sept flights were ALL $124 and the price was $269 for 2 non-stop flights.

Compare apples to apples though. I was simply selecting the lowest prices available for dates. If you want to get prime flight times or non-stop flights, obviously those will be more expensive. Even if you pick a non-prime flight, say arriving at 10:00 PM the night before you check into Disney, you can stay at an airport hotel for about $50 and STILL save money on the trip because flights will be less (assuming you are flying with more than one person).

 

[ICF]

Compare apples to apples though.

I was---or as best as I could as the flight times for May were not necessarily the same flight times showing in Sept. All fares were their "wanna get away" prices.

In May - as mentioned - there were a wide range of prices. For the trip down, the cheapest option was $124 (for two flights that landed in Orlando after 10pm). My flight choice was actually $139. The rest of the 5 flights ranged in cost from $159-$287.

There were 4 options to fly home. The cheapest was $89 to leave @ 6:30 am and have a stop in Chicago. The other 3 flights were $124 - $139.

When choosing dates in Sept - again same flight times were not available - there were 5 flights (direct & non-direct leaving at all times during the day) and ALL were $124. Coming home there were 8 flight options (direct & non-direct leaving at all times during the day) and all were $124 except for 1 $159 fare that mid afternoon departure and a lay over in Chicago.

 

[Planogirl]

Disney charges more than most others for their cruises. I can't see them doing anything but the same for their flights if they were to establish an airline. I don't think that it would work for us.

 

[fireman17]

You know the more that I thought about this topic the more I thought it would be a bad idea. If Disney did in fact have a air service to their parks I'm sure the fare would be so high that no one could afford it.