Johnson Gets Airborne

-- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/15/2001

American Airlines is buying a 49% share of Black Entertainment Television Chairman Bob Johnson's new airline, DC Air, for $82 million. Under conditions of the agreement, DC Air will run 114 daily departures from Washington's Reagan Airport, with 37 aircraft serving 3 million passengers annually; American will provide, maintain and staff 11 aircraft in a lease arrangement; and DC Air will become part of American's frequent-flier program. Johnson purchased the commuter line for roughly $200 million shortly before selling his television assets to Viacom for $3 billion. Viacom took everything but BET Action, a pay-per-view, 9 million-subscriber service. Published reports say Action will be closed or sold by the end of March. BET did not respond to questions about the dissolution of Action.