Streamline Air is no more. The scheduled charter carrier I raved about in an April 12^th blog quietly closed up shop on Sept. 14.

The move came as a huge disappointment to me and, I’m sure, to fellow Streamline passengers who reveled in the convenience, the genuinely friendly service, low fares and on-time flights that provided an overwhelmingly attractive alternative to the traffic, parking, security lines and general mayhem of commuting between Boston (BOS) and Philadelphia (PHL).

A couple of days after the announcement, Mark Cestari, Streamline managing director, told the Times of Trenton, “I’m still digesting the reality of this week. This has all happened really quickly. I still believe there’s a market here.”

Sadder still is that indicators suggest Cestari is correct in his belief that a market exists for alternative air transportation connecting Boston and Philadelphia. A separate article in the Times of Trenton says in 17 months of operation, Streamline shuttled 10,000 passengers on its 20 weekly flights; 80 percent of those passengers were regular commuters.

So what happened? Reports suggest the carrier’s ultimate demise was put into motion last spring when Charter Air Transport, the organization that owned the 30-seat Embraer EMB-120 turboprop aircraft Streamline leased to service the route, reallocated its equipment, leaving Streamline without a plane, or maybe without a plane it could afford. Some reports mention a “payment issue that cropped up last spring.”

In the end, Streamline’s 12 employees lost their jobs, and US Airways is once again the only game in town for passengers seeking direct, non-stop flights between Boston and Philadelphia — a position the carrier leveraged almost immediately by bumping round-trip fares for the one-hour flight to $800–900.

Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, it is possible to secure a lower RT fare via US Airways’ website. The kicker? The one-hour flight becomes a three-hour journey with connections through Buffalo or Detroit or Washington, D.C.

Oh, Streamline, I miss you already.

— Lisa Matte, editor in chief