GARY | A start-up aviation company is lobbying Gary/Chicago International Airport to start daily flights between Green Bay and Gary.

MetJet, of Green Bay, has been in contact with Airport Director Chris Curry and also Friends of the Gary/Chicago Airport, a community group that promotes the airport.

Curry characterized conversations with MetJet as "very preliminary" at a meeting of the Gary airport authority Thursday.

The company plans to operate as a public charter operator, said MetJet CEO Mike Heisman, when contacted in Green Bay, on Thursday. MetJet has not yet applied for a charter certificate from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

SkyValue, an airline that also operated as a regularly scheduled public charter out of Gary, ended flights at the end of April after just four months of flying.

A last-ditch attempt to keep SkyValue flying with a $325,000 payment from the airport sparked controversy two weeks ago. The airport is seeking the return of the money.

Heisman said he has been working on and off on launching MetJet for four years. The company would lease its planes and crews from another air operator, much in the way SkyValue did.

Curry told authority members Thursday MetJet is among a number of aviation companies and airlines the airport has talked with about flying into Gary. Delta Airlines and AirTran also have expressed interest in the airport at times, as have others.

MetJet wants to raise $1.2 million by renting out the side of its plane as a flying billboard under a program called LogoJets, Heisman said. If it can do that, it will have accumulated enough capital to begin operations.

Next year is the earliest flying could start, Heisman said.

The first route to operate would be daily flights between Green Bay and Gary and Gary and Florida. There also would be a direct flight from Green Bay to Florida, Heisman said.

"What I see with Gary is the potential for MetJet and Gary to grow together and the location is incredible," Heisman said.