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Ultimate Air Shuttle adds flights from Lunken Airport to Atlanta

Ultimate Air Shuttle adds flights from Lunken Airport to Atlanta
Posted at 4:21 PM, Feb 07, 2017
and last updated 2017-02-08 07:33:19-05

CINCINNATI -- Another airline is increasing service in Greater Cincinnati.

Ultimate Air Shuttle, the public charter popular among business and corporate clients, will soon offer direct flights to Atlanta's Peachtree Airport (PDK) five days a week starting March 20, officials announced Tuesday. Plans for a new southern city pair have been in the works for months.

Flights will depart Lunken Airport, where Ultimate has consolidated all its local flights, Monday-Friday at 9:20 a.m. for a 10:20 a.m. arrival at PDK. The return flight leaves Atlanta at 3:45 p.m. and arrives at Lunken at 4:45 p.m. Cost is $549 for a round trip.

"We've been canvassing for Atlanta for almost two years now with the business community in Cincinnati, and we've received great feedback," said Rick Pawlak, Ultimate's managing director. "Nearly every customer in our portfolio goes to Atlanta at some point, some hundreds of times a year and some maybe a few times a year. The numbers started really making sense. We just couldn't get an aircraft fast enough to start this city pair."

Ultimate will also offer the service between Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport and Atlanta with a stopover in Cincinnati. The cost is also $549.

Pawlak said they'll utilize the same 30-passenger jet that flies the Cleveland-Cincinnati connection. Peachtree Airport, located 20 miles northeast of downtown, meanwhile is "right in the heart of the business district," he said.

"Peachtree Airport, I believe, is what our clients are going to love the most about going to Atlanta," he added. "It's going to offer a huge time savings for our customers. And they can still do a day trip or stay a few nights and come back whenever it's convenient for them."

With the addition, Ultimate will now fly to five cities from Cincinnati, including Cleveland, Chicago-Midway, Charlotte and New York via Morristown, New Jersey.

Its announcement is also just the latest in a string of recent air service improvements. Southwest Airlines announced its arrival in January with five flights daily to Chicago-Midway and three flights daily to Baltimore/Washington International starting June 4. Frontier last week added Minneapolis, New York-LaGuardia and San Diego to its route map for spring. And in turn, Delta will make aircraft upgrades and expanded service to five cities with additional daily flights Chicago, Houston, Orlando, Toronto and Atlanta.

Pawlak said that didn't factor into their latest decision.

"We're not concerned at all," he said. "We're a different product, and we offer a different experience."

Liz Engel reports on Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport for WCPO. Follow her on Twitter @_LizEngel.