Independence Air

Independence Air was Atlantic Coast Airlines, which flew for United Express and Delta Connection from Washington Dulles. In 2004 it began selling its own seats as a low-fare airline, and it ceased operations in January 2006. Its partner shares are shown only for the years it flew for other airlines.

A passenger jet flying above white clouds — Illustrative photo, not an aircraft of Independence Air.

5.3 millionpassengers, 2005
59seats per flight on average
555 milesaverage trip per passenger
60.1seat-miles per gallon

How it changed

Independence Air carried 5.3 million passengers in 2005. Its busiest year was 2003, at 8.4 million.

Its average flight had 40 seats in 2002 and 59 in 2005, a sign of larger aircraft replacing smaller ones. The average passenger flew 379 miles per segment in 2002 and 555 in 2005, and 71% of its seat-miles were filled in 2005.

Independence Air passengers per year, 2002 to 2005.

Who it flew for

Independence Air flew for more than one airline, and sometimes several at once. Our estimate of the split between them, which is based on the airports it serves, is too rough to publish for a regional like this. The summary at the top names its partners from public record.

Fuel

In 2005 Independence Air burned 69 million gallons of jet fuel, which is 60.1 seat-miles per gallon and about 0.229 kg of CO2 per passenger-mile. Over 500 miles that's roughly 115 kg per passenger. Small regional aircraft burn more fuel per seat than the mainline jets, and a short hop spends a larger share of its fuel on take-off and climb, so these figures aren't graded against the airlines on the main list. Their flying and fuel are counted in the airlines whose names are on the tickets.

For some years Independence Air didn't file usable fuel figures with BTS. In 1 of them we priced its own flight hours at the fuel burn per hour that other airlines reported for the same aircraft types that year; in 1 we used the median seat-miles per gallon of the regionals that did report. They're marked with an asterisk in the table below. See the methodology.

Year-by-year figures

Year	Passengers (millions)	Departures (thousands)	Seats per flight	Average trip (miles)	Load factor	Seat-miles (billions)	Seat-miles per gallon
2005	5.3	134	58.5	555	70.7%	4.16	60.1
2004	7.0	265	44.2	378	60.8%	4.37	66.7
2003	8.4	293	41.0	396	71.4%	4.65	38.1*
2002	2.0	75	40.2	379	67.5%	1.12	43.7*

Regionals with shared partners

These profiles have a partner airline in common with Independence Air in at least one data year. The partner split is estimated, and the airlines may have flown for the shared network at different times.

Nearby in fuel efficiency

Neighbours in the seat-miles per gallon table, using each airline's last data year. Fuel estimates are marked on the profiles, and these aren't same-year rankings.

Compass Airlines48.4 seat-miles per gallon, 2020 Colgan Air52.1 seat-miles per gallon, 2012

Airline references

Wikipedia: Independence Air

Source: US Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), T-100 traffic and Schedule T-2 fuel filings; US EPA jet-fuel CO2 factor. Methods and allocation limits.

Back to all regional airlines or the fuel rankings.