Discount carrier to stop flying

Independence Air will ground itself Thursday night because it hasn’t found a buyer or investor, marking the sudden death of the low-cost carrier that made a rapid descent into insolvency.

The demise of the airline, which began flying less than two years ago and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors two months ago, will leave passengers scrambling to change travel plans.

Independence Air, based at Washington Dulles International Airport, has canceled all scheduled flights that take off after Thursday evening. The airline’s final flight is scheduled to be a 7:26 p.m. departure from White Plains, N.Y., to Washington.

Airline officials said yesterday that they are trying to contact passengers whose return flights are scheduled for after Thursday to book them on earlier flights, and the company will seek court approval to refund consumers who booked flights beyond its final day of operations.

The shutdown will leave a gaping hole at Dulles, where Independence Air has 36 gates. United Airlines will be the airport’s dominant carrier, with 478 flights a day. Independence Air was the airport’s second-leading carrier.

Every line at the Independence Air ticket counters at Dulles, including self-serve kiosks, overflowed with passengers yesterday.

Eliana Whittington, a stay-at-home mother of three, said she hoped to get a refund and find a flight on another airline for her mother, who is booked on an Independence Air flight from Charleston, W.Va., later this month.

“They have been very affordable; that’s why we have done it,” she said, referring to her family’s frequent trips on Independence Air.

Airline spokesman Rick DeLisi said it is not clear how many tickets have been sold for flights beyond Thursday.

Passengers do have safeguards. Airlines flying the same routes as Independence Air must make standby seats available to its customers who have unrefunded tickets, said Terry Trippler, airline analyst with Cheapseats.com. Airlines can charge $50 each for the standby seats.

Congress passed the law after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The shutdown leaves thousands of employees without jobs.

“We got the news this morning. It was very tough for us to hear that. We’re like a family, very close to each other,” said Kim Teng, a customer service specialist with the airline. The 55-year-old said she had not started looking for another job because she thought Independence would continue operating despite its bankruptcy filing.

“Look at all the customers coming to us,” a teary Ms. Teng said. “Whatever the difficulty, I thought Independence Air would survive it and I would stay with them.”

Independence Air has about 2,700 workers, 85 percent of whom work at Dulles Airport, and more than 200 flights a day to 37 cities. At its peak, the airline had 5,000 employees and 600 flights a day to 46 cities.

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