(Courtesy: The Lincoln Municipal Airport)
Nearly 6 months after the shut down of Lincoln’s failed airline service Red Way, the Nebraska Auditor of Public Accounts’ (APA) office has confirmed all customers stiffed on unfulfilled flights have been refunded.
Back in August, less than 3 months after its launch, the city’s new flight service closed and cancelled all flights abruptly. As questions arose about Red Way’s finances, the Lincoln Airport Authority and Nebraska State Auditor Mike Foley announced they would conduct separate audits of Fly Next LLC (Fly Next), owned by Nickolas Wangler of Colorado, which conducted business in Nebraska under the trade name “Red Way.”
Months went by, and reports began to surface of hundreds of customers still awaiting refunds. Jumping the gun, Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers said in December that Red Way consumers waiting for returns “should” have now all received full refunds. This found to be inaccurate by the Auditor Foley, who announced in a scathing report that the venture may have still owed up to $100,000 to customers.
“Red Way was a failed riverboat gamble bankrolled by taxpayers,” said Foley in his report. “Had the Red Way business plan been prepared for the eyes of a reputable commercial bank lender, its proponents would not have gotten past the junior teller.”
We are now learning, the APA and Wangler have been in correspondence since Foley’s report was released.
A week after Foley’s report, Wangler told the APA that all individuals were fully refunded across all systems. The APA disputed this, saying no refunds were processed fully because no money had been disbursed from the relevant escrow account and there was not sufficient money remaining in the account.
“We continue to receive information from customers that have not yet received their refund,” the APA told Wangler on January 25th, 2024.
“Understood…that’s what I’ve uncovered,” replied Wangler the same day. “I’ve said before I will 100% ensure that this is settled with everyone.”
Wangler said to APA staff on February 10th:
“I owe you, Mason and everyone else working on this (as well as all effected passengers) a HUGE apology. I simply had no idea the severity of these refunds. I don’t have a way to independently verify (at least not that I was aware of) to see that these passengers were not refund. I am so sincerely sorry to everyone…. The sun will not set on Monday until these are 100% refunded and verified.”
A few days later, February 13th, Wangler confirmed the remaining 235 refunds were issued with no processing errors.
The APA thanked Wangler for being cooperative and forthcoming to their office throughout the process, saying, “We appreciate his work to ensure that, in response to questions by our office, the remaining Red Way customers received the refunds to which they were entitled.”
The next day, the APA says they reached out to over 25 Red Way customers to confirm their refunds had been received. Several affirmed their refunds had been processed.
“We recommend that the Authority continue to work with the appropriate parties to ensure that any remaining concerns resulting from Red Way’s operations in this State be addressed and, hopefully, resolved promptly,” the APA’s (hopefully) final report on the Red Way fiasco concluded.