John Weikle, CEO of Jet America, said Lansing was a good location for Jet America because the area lacks a low-cost carrier.

“As fares go down, ridership goes up,” Weikle said. “Places like Lansing and South Bend (Ind.) and Toledo (Ohio) have never really had a significant amount of low fare service.”

Weikle said most travelers who use low fare airlines live within 75 miles of the airport with the airline. In Lansing, that represents a population of about 5.2 million, he said.

Weikle said the reason for the $9 prices is to attract attention to the new service.

“The $9 is just to get people interested, but the average fare has to be $71 to make money,” Weikle said. “The fares start at $9, but there’s minimal seats (at that price) — at least nine, usually about 19.”

The airline can sell $9 tickets by limiting the number offered and having graduated ticket prices. The company models its business after the European company Ryanair and has a business model similar to Wal-Mart, Weikle said.

“You take the cost of actually flying the airplane, for an hour for example, you mark it up 20 percent … and you divide it by the number of seats you expect to sell,” Weikle said.

Robert F. Selig, executive director of the Capital Region Airport Authority, said Mid-Michigan needs more carriers.

“We don’t have a lack of flying out of Mid-Michigan, we have a lack of air service,” Selig said. “(Jet America will) add 189 seats in the market for giving people an opportunity to travel that they don’t have today.”

Selig said the flights from Lansing to Melbourne help fill a void left when the airport lost nonstop service to Florida in January. Selig said the airport wanted service to Washington, D.C., but pointed out that direct service to Newark, a city close to Manhattan, also is popular.

“New York is one of our top five destinations that business travel (goes to),” he said. “Certainly that’s a great leisure market so we’re happy about that too.”

MSU alumnus Jason Wirtz lives in Manhattan and graduated from MSU in 1997 as an undergraduate and then in 2008 for his doctorate degree. Although Wirtz said he visits Michigan for holidays and goes to East Lansing about twice a year, he said inexpensive flights from Newark would allow him to visit his alma mater more frequently.

“I know people in the East Coast area and we like to go to (MSU football games) together, but we usually go to about one a year,” he said. “If it was really cheap, we could do two a year.”

Selig said discount airfare will give more people a chance to fly, especially during depressed economic times.

“It gives those people in Mid-Michigan that have been struggling with the economy for a while a real inexpensive way to get out and fly and have fun,” he said.

Though expanding coverage is good for the airport, Selig said the only way for it to continue is for flyers to use it.

“It’s really important that when we spend this money on this air service, Mid-Michigan flyers use their own air service and don’t go to another airport,” he said. “The only way we retain air service is by individual travelers using it.”