Failed JetAmerica costs Ohio agency $150,000

TOLEDO, Ohio -- Its overseers say a local government agency in Ohio should be more careful, following a failed experience with a new airline.

JetAmerica had offered flights from Toledo for as little as $9 one-way, but it canceled all service on Friday before a plane ever left the ground.

A spokeswoman for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority estimates marketing the discount airline cost the agency $150,000.

Port authority airport committee member A. Bailey Stanbery asks whether JetAmerica should have been considered at all, given the track record. Its founder also was behind Skybus, a low-fare carrier that folded in Columbus last year.

At a meeting Monday, port authority chief executive Michael Stolarczyk called the JetAmerica episode "a learning experience."