Airline hires flight attendants in Northwest Indiana

More than two dozen flight attendants from the Region have been hired for SkyValue flights that begin Dec. 15 from Gary to five leisure destinations.

With nearly 6,000 seats already booked on flights, training for the flight attendants has started, according to Gabrielle Griswold, SkyValue senior vice president. The attendants were hired by Xtra Airways, of Elko, Nev., which is providing planes and flight crews for SkyValue.

"People in Illinois and Indiana are just saying: 'Anything to avoid the lines at Midway and O'Hare,' " Griswold said.

The nearly 6,000 bookings so far would be enough to fill the Boeing 737-800 that SkyValue will be using more than 33 times.

Griffith Travel Center has booked half a dozen flights on SkyValue, according to travel agency owner Dean Cooper.

"They want to fly out of someplace close, and they want to get there direct," Cooper said of how people make their choices for leisure destination flights.

SkyValue will kick off a promotional and advertising campaign locally in about a week, according to Griswold. Three weeks ago, SkyValue announced it would fly out of Gary and it started taking reservations two weeks ago.

SkyValue USA is a subsidiary of CFirstClass Corp., a group of investors that recently bought U.K.-based SkyValue, a charter airline.

So far, the new airline has only run a few ads in local newspapers announcing the service.

Phoenix and Orlando are the top two reserved destinations so far, Griswold said. A one-way trip to Phoenix is $130, and one way to Orlando costs $79. There are two scheduled flights per week to Phoenix and three to Orlando.

Other destinations are one-way to Fort Lauderdale for $99, St. Petersburg for $79 and Las Vegas for $79.

The Gary Jet Center will provide ticket agents and baggage handlers for SkyValue, according to Lynn Eplawy, a managing partner of the Gary Jet Center.

The Gary Jet Center also provided ticket agents and baggage handlers for Hooters Air and Southeast Airlines, two air carriers that operated at the airport previously. Most of those employees are coming back for SkyValue.

"The night they heard about it, they were so excited," Eplawy said. "They were on the phone with us the next day, and we told them we'd love to have them back."

The 174-seat Boeing 737-800s SkyValue will use will be the newest airliners ever to fly out of Gary, with Hooters and other airlines having used older planes such as MD80s and Boeing 727s.