After more than two and a half years of working towards certification, Connect Airlines is back to square one. The carrier’s Certificate Authorities for interstate and foreign scheduled passenger services have been revoked by the Department of Transportation for dormancy.
The Department cannot allow applications to remain pending indefinitely, particularly where applicants are non-responsive to our requests for information, and otherwise have not demonstrated that an approval of the waiver would allow an imminent start of operations. – DOT ruling
The Certificate Authorities were issued in July 2022, with the expectation that Connect Airlines (via its operating business name Waltzing Matilda Aviation) would obtain FAA authorization to begin operations, and that it would prove sufficient financial backing to get through its first few months of service. It claimed additional funding in August 2023 (including a reference to American Airlines potentially taking a stake), but still needed time to sort things out with the FAA.
Alas, the DOT is not willing to wait any longer.
Among other things, the FAA notified the DOT that it had terminated its certification efforts for Waltzing Matilda Aviation on 11 September 2023.
It also notes that the financial fitness of the company – a key factor in the approval process – has been unclear since the initial submission. While the certificate revocation is without prejudice, “the Department will require WMA to provide third-party verification that it has available to it all of the capital required to demonstrate its fitness and citizenship.”
The filing had plenty more choice words for the company with respect to its application and efforts to dance around requests for more information from the agency:
The Department expects applicants to be fully prepared to prosecute their applications, including having access to all of the necessary capital or having in place a firm funding plan to acquire the capital necessary to meet our financial fitness requirements prior to being awarded economic authority. Processing and maintaining incomplete applications delay the Department’s ability to process applications from companies that have provided complete filings and are prepared to complete the steps necessary to commence operations.
Perhaps Waltzing Matilda will try again. The company had grand plans to convert its props to hydrogen power and become a zero emissions airline sooner than anyone else in the world. There’s likely a market for that, and the short hops from Toronto are a good place to give it a try.
But getting there will require starting over with the DOT and the FAA. And showing up with their bank statements ready to go.
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