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The Triad could be a future destination for a new low-cost airline that will begin serving mid-sized U.S. cities that it thinks larger carriers have left behind.

Clearwater, Fla.-based Jet America said on Tuesday that 34 nonstop passenger flights a week will start July 13 at Toledo, Ohio; South Bend, Ind.; Melbourne, Fla.; Newark, N.J.; Minneapolis and Lansing, Mich. Twenty-eight flights start or end at Newark Liberty International Airport. The carrier will add six more flights — from Toledo to Minneapolis — starting Aug. 14.

And in its news release announcing the new service, the airline said it could expand to the Triad. Among its "future focus cities under consideration in 2009" are Greensboro and Winston-Salem.

John Weikle, chief executive of Jet America, said the subsidies from some of the cities it will serve in July will help insulate the new carrier from spikes in jet fuel prices. Higher fuel prices have contributed to the failures of at least four major airlines since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Smaller carriers have also been hurt.

Surging fuel prices helped bankrupt ultra-discounter Skybus last year. Weikle founded that Columbus, Ohio-based airline known for its $10 fares. The bankruptcy cost 450 employees their jobs.

Jet America's pricing will share some Skybus characteristics.

Prices will start at $9 a seat and top out at $199. The $9 price will apply to the first nine to 19 seats on each plane. Passengers will pay $15 to check a bag. Food, drinks and in-flight TV will also come at a cost.

The carrier is starting out with one leased Boeing 737-800, expects to add a second in the first month, and have as many as four by July of next year. Weikle's business plans calls for an additional 189-seat jet to be leased every four months.

Each Boeing 737-800 can fly to four cities a day, Weikle said.

Weikle estimated Jet America's revenue at more than $50 million in the first year and about $150 million in the second. He compares his business model to that of Walmart Inc., which started out by serving cities of less than 50,000 people because competitors were not interested in them.

Jet America plans to serve Melbourne, Fla., with at least six flights a week. Richard Ennis, executive director of Melbourne International Airport, said Jet America's planes and nonstop routes persuaded him to support the carrier. Melbourne, a coastal community about 70 miles southeast of Orlando, recorded a 45 percent decline in passenger traffic at its airport from 2000 to 2008.

Ennis said carriers with larger jets such as the Boeing 737-800 charge less per seat, which is an advantage enjoyed by Orlando International Airport and Orlando Sanford International Airport.

"It's the only way I can beat them out," Ennis said of the neighboring airports.