My wife is from Worcester, Massachusetts, about an hour west of Boston, and her mom called with the news that Worcester’s municipal airport was getting air service operated by Virgin America.

Sure enough: A charter outfit called Direct Air (or Myrtle Beach Direct Air) is starting flights from Worcester to Punta Gorda, Florida and Orlando’s downscale Sanford Airport. Flights are operated by Virgin America. Massport had to waive landing, bridge, and terminal fees (in other words, it’s a complete freebie) and, with the city of Worcester, the agency is paying $300,000 toward marketing the flights.

A few points on this, even if you have no family ties to central Massachusetts:

First, while I’ve never heard of Direct Air before today, I’m impressed that they have Virgin America equipment and crews operating the flights. (A “wet lease.”) The satellite TV and entertainment are Virgin’s. So are the seats, including first class. For a charter airline, the seat configuration — 34″ of pitch — is already a big improvement over the status quo of American coach. Thumbs up.

Second, except for the fact that they’ve got the classiest discount airline’s equipment, this airline is completely amateur hour. For God’s sake, on their website, they can’t even spell “Worcester” correctly. (Their frontpage announces service to “Worchester”. See below.)

Other cities are misspelled elsewhere on the site (e.g., “Fort Meyer” instead of Fort Myers, though they DO spell it correctly in the website masthead). Sheesh. The rest of the site is hardly better. They show images of a Direct Air-liveried plane (an old Boeing 737-200) that’s seemingly just a Photoshop job. (I assume Virgin America is keeping its colors on its Airbus A320.) This doesn’t instill confidence.

Third, what does this say about Virgin America that they’re pimping their planes and staff out on the Worcester to Punta Gorda (”Fort Meyer”) route for an outfit like this?

Fourth, fees, fees, fees. Expect an upsell to a “fare club” a la Spirit. Checked luggage costs ya. And there’s a “web convenience fee,” just like Allegiant, for purchasing tickets online. It’s the topsy-turvy world of scheduled charter airlines.

Fifth, let’s be honest. Why would any airline bother with Worcester? With so many airports in the region — Boston, Manchester, Hartford, and Providence are all within an hour — it’s no surprise that Worcester hasn’t been able to sustain viable air service. And why should it, frankly? No offense to the in-laws, or to the booster writing this pro-Worcester Airport blog, but it makes no sense for an established airline to fly to Worcester when other airports have far more established operations right down the road. American and US Airways used to serve the airport with regional jets. Then Allegiant offered flights, which ended in 2006. And now Direct Air.

Bottom line: I will be very surprised if this lasts more than four months after they start service. What a waste of taxpayer money, time, effort, and jet fuel.