Ultimate Air Shuttle (Cincinnati Lunken) has announced that it will restart scheduled operations on April 12, 2021, more than half a year after it was forced to suspend them due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The carrier will begin its scheduled restart with its trunk intrastate route in Ohio, flying 10x weekly from Cincinnati Lunken to Cleveland Burke Lakefront. All flights will be operated with a Do328-300 by parent Ultimate Jetcharters.
"We chose the Cincinnati to Cleveland Shuttle first to help Ohio businesses get back to work. The Monday through Friday schedule was built to provide a full workday for our customers originating out of Cincinnati or Cleveland. Our one-of-a-kind intrastate air service saves Ohio businesses time and money by avoiding overnight hotel stays and additional travel expenses," the airline said.
Ultimate Air Shuttle said that in the second phase, it would seek to resume services to Atlanta Dekalb-Peachtree, Charlotte International, and Nashville International. However, it gave no indicative timeline, saying that it wanted to "restart quickly" but needed to "do it wisely over time".
The virtual carrier suspended all scheduled flights on March 16, 2020. It restarted the Cleveland-Cincinnati shuttle, as well as services to Atlanta, in July 2020 but suspended them again in late September. Ultimate Jetcharters, which operates a total of eight Do328-300s, has continued to conduct charter flights throughout the pandemic. Four of its Do328s are currently active. The carrier also operates two active EMB-135LRs, the ch-aviation fleets module shows.
Ultimate Air Shuttle will be the only carrier operating scheduled flights between Cincinnati and Cleveland.
