A small airline's plan to offer nonstop service from Rochester to airports in Arizona and Florida, capitalizing on expected demand from Mayo Clinic staff and patients, has fallen through.
Elite Airways planned to start the flights in October. The company announced Tuesday it was canceling the planned routes and had already contacted ticketed passengers to make refunds.
Elite said in May that it would offer nonstop routes from Rochester to Phoenix and to the Northeast Florida Regional Airport, which is near St. Augustine, south of Jacksonville.
The airline is based in Portland, Maine, but chiefly flies in and out of Orlando. It operates a small fleet of Bombardier CRJ-200 and CRJ-700 jets that hold 50 to 70 passengers.
