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John Weikle watched the spectacular growth — and failure — of Skybus and vowed that his next airline would not commit the same mistakes.

His new low-fare airline, JetAmerica, gives the Dayton, Ohio, businessman a chance to show his savvy.

Weikle, who helped start Skybus but left it long before last year’s bankruptcy, said Thursday that JetAmerica could someday fly to Piedmont Triad International Airport, but it will take at least 18 months.

The airport isn’t content to wait that long. Henry Isaacson, chairman of the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority, is already working to set up talks with JetAmerica, which will take off July 13.

The Clearwater, Fla.-based airline will serve airports in Toledo, Ohio; Newark, N.J.; Lansing, Mich.; Melbourne-Vero Beach, Fla.; and South Bend, Ind. Tickets are now on sale at www.jetamerica.com.

It will use large Boeing 737-800 jets and offer pricing of nine seats for $9 on every flight, and low fares for all other passengers. Skybus used a similar strategy — the first 10 seats on every flight sold for $10 each.

Triad passengers remain leery of airlines with ultra-cheap fares. When Skybus declared bankruptcy on a Friday in April 2008, it left scores of people stranded with no way to get home.

But Isaacson is always searching for reliable discount fares.

“I don’t laugh at situations like this. I investigate them,” he said.

Weikle has decades of experience as an executive at traditional airlines. A few years ago, he and a group of others founded Skybus, which they based in Columbus, Ohio.

When its first flight took off in May 2007, the airline’s quirky character was a big success on its limited schedule.

But Weikle had already left, feeling that the management made too many changes to his original plan.

Although Skybus grew quickly, it outran its money and said a rise in fuel prices put it out of business.

Weikle also emphasized that Skybus had a terrible on-time record, which ultimately frightened passengers away, proving low prices don’t trump bad service.

Co-founded with six of the original 10 Skybus founders, along with private investors, JetAmerica will differ from Skybus because it:

l Emphasizes on-time operation by building more of a time buffer into its schedules and contracting with a charter service to fly its planes.

l Plans on slow growth. The airline would look at adding a second “focus city” to Toledo — such as the Triad — only after it has been established 18 months.

l Will work on creating good labor relations. Weikle said Skybus’ pilots joined a union within months of employment — which is unusual for startup airlines.

l Will seek investors from a city before it locates there, he said. Greensboro investors might need to put up $3 million to $6 million, for example, he said.

Isaacson said he has only one financial incentive to offer — $2.16 for every passenger that an airline generates on a new route. The airline could collect that for three years.

Any airline can claim that incentive.

“We really prefer not to go beyond that with any other incentives,” Isaacson said, “because it wouldn’t be fair to our other airlines.”

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com