A group led by Edward Beauvais, former America West Airlines chairman, announced plans yesterday to base a new start-up carrier in Pittsburgh, but the group still must finalize the financing, acquire the planes and gain a foothold in a market that has crushed other low-cost carriers.

Beauvais and other officials affiliated with "Project Roam," the working name for the new airline, laid out an ambitious plan to begin low-fare service in June 2004 with up to five nonstop flights a day to nine cities. The airline would employ 500 people.

They hope to expand to 39 nonstop destinations and more than 120 daily fights in five years and employ as many as 2,100 employees out of a Pittsburgh hub. Beauvais also plans to make Pittsburgh the headquarters for the airline and its accompanying infrastructure, such as reservations and possibly maintenance.

Beauvais, who founded America West and two Colorado Springs, Colo.-based airlines, said the group had yet to finalize financing but was "pretty well along in terms of establishing our equity." He would not discuss specifics, saying he was prohibited by Securities and Exchange Commission from doing so.

Beauvais' group hopes to use new Boeing 737-700 airplanes to launch service.

"We are an airline in its development stage. We are in the process of finalizing our financing," Beauvais said at a press conference at the Omni William Penn Hotel.

Should it get off the ground, the airline plans to offer fares as low as $49 one-way on short hauls to markets like Philadelphia and Washington and $99 to the West Coast and Las Vegas. Among the nine cities it expects to serve at first are Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Orlando and Washington, D.C.

Besides arranging financing, the group's plans also must undergo a review by the Federal Aviation Administration. That could take five months. Beauvais said Project Roam officials plan to begin discussions with the FAA today.

Officials said the initial business plan assumes that US Airways will remain the dominant carrier at the airport. Should the airline close down its hub, as it is threatening to do unless it gets a deal to lower its airport costs, the new carrier's plans could accelerate.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey said the group's business plan has been reviewed by three Airport Authority consultants, all of whom reacted favorably.

Roddey, a Republican who is running for re-election in November, said he forwarded the Project Roam plans to his Democratic opponent, Dan Onorato, who met with the group yesterday afternoon.

Onorato, who is ahead in the polls, said he was a "little skeptical" of the announcement's timing, given how close it was to the election and given that the airline won't begin operating until June 2004, but otherwise welcomed the group's effort.

Project Roam officials said the group decided to make the announcement now because word was leaking out about the proposed venture. They also had been looking at Syracuse, Boston, Dayton, New York, Philadelphia and Greensboro as possible hubs.

They settled on Pittsburgh for a number of reasons, including its "perfect airport," as one official put it.

"It's a major market, significant population base, and it's never had a wide variety of low fares. And so we look to this as our opportunity," Beauvais said.

Still, the carrier is facing tough odds breaking into the Pittsburgh market, particularly if US Airways, the dominant airline, retains its hub. The airport runways are littered with low-fare airlines that tried service here only to fail.

In 1996 alone, ex-low-fare carriers ValuJet, Nation's Air and Aliquippa-based JetTrain all dropped service from Pittsburgh. ValuJet later changed its name to Air Tran and, amid high expectations, launched service to New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Atlanta from Pittsburgh. But it ended up dropping the New York, Philadelphia and Chicago flights because of a lack of support.

Beauvais and Travis Tanner, president and CEO of the start-up airline, believe Project Roam will be different. For one, they think the market will support a low-cost carrier which makes its home here.

They also believe local travelers may be less likely to support US Airways given that the airline has rejected its leases at Pittsburgh International and has threatened to shut down its hub unless it gets the debt reductions it wants. There may be a "different opinion of the incumbent in the marketplace," said Tanner, former executive vice president of Walt Disney World.

With low fares, the group also is hoping to recapture many of an estimated 700,000 travelers who drive from southwest Pennsylvania to other airports to take advantage of cheaper prices. The airline's business plan is based on the premise that US Airways will slash its fares to compete and to maintain its dominance.

US Airways welcomed the challenge.

"We compete every day with low-cost carriers. However, this does not change the company's position -- that is that we still must find a way to lower the airport debt if we are to stay in Pittsburgh as a hub carrier," spokesman David Castelveter said.

Nonetheless, the fledging airline could be facing long odds in an industry still reeling from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the war in Iraq, and the overall economy.

"When you are a startup, there are so many things that can go the wrong way and take you out," said John Pincavage, president of Pincavage & Associates LLC in Westport, Conn., which provides financial and planning advice to airlines. "If everything is done right and you catch some breaks, you can make it work. But history says it's going to be a difficult task."

But other analysts said yesterday that this was an opportune time for Beauvais.

Kevin Mitchell, who heads the Radnor-based Business Travel Coalition, said discount start-ups have several things going for them. Because of the slump in the airline industry, with carriers like US Airways forced to cancel airplane leases and trim back future orders, there are many aircraft on the market for sale or lease. With interest rates at current levels, the cost of borrowing money is low. And again, because of the slump in the airline industry, major airlines aren't in a position "to run you out of the market."

"I think you will see a lot of start-ups during the next 18 to 24 months," Mitchell said.

Stephen Morrison, an economics professor at Northeastern University in Boston who specializes in the airline industry, said today's start-ups will likely have an easier time attracting the business customer, whose willingness to pay high fares in exchange for frequent, convenient service was long the mainstay of the major airlines.

Beauvais left America West in 1992 after it filed for bankruptcy, which he blamed on the first Gulf War.

Beauvais also was founder, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Western Pacific Airlines, but sold a major portion of his ownership position and resigned as CEO in 1996. Western Pacific liquidated in 1998 after filing for bankruptcyBeauvais also founded Mountain Air Express, a Colorado Springs-based commuter airline which started service in 1996. It merged with Air Wisconsin in 1998.