On recent GSO-SGJ flights, they were about 65% outbound, 20% full return...but that was inaugural day. They rolled out the red carpet at GSO and had employees lining and clapping as pax boarded. CEO was there for a news conference and a NASCAR driver helped to cut the ribbon. Drinks and snacks were served in the gate area before boarding. Nearly 2/3 of people bought food/drinks...(I overheard FAs talking)...and I saw 4 people within my 3-4 row vicinity give the FAs tips!

Not bad...just got to increase those loads! Hopefully, the opening week of these flights will not be an indication of future bookings.

Skybus passed WN for the #1 ranking in arriving and departing passengers at CMH for the month of 1/08.

Skybus tops Southwest as No. 1 carrier at Port Columbus in January

It looks like there is already the 'Skybus effect' in Columbus.

From Columbus Dispatch:

Just watch Skybus farejack once they drive out the competition. The Walmart approach, I guess.

The loss of Midwest Connect service must be disappointing to CMH-based Midwest FFs, because that takes away the opportunity to directly connect to Midwest's hub at MCI and accumulate miles on the flight there.

That must be a fairly new service YX is dropping. I was a Midwest FF before I moved to San Antonio. Since most of my trips are to CMH, I had to switch to WN because the only routing available on YX when I moved was an expensive SAT-MCI-MKE-CMH.

Wow! I didn't realized know that from DL has been discontinuation from CMH-FLL due to leak competitive with SX. Because SX has been done performing extremely very well from FLL-CMH instead of DL. I think SX will eventually became focus cities at FLL. Does SX has been already deliveries another A319 this time?

I noticed a Skybus flight today from KPIT to KCMH SKB02A was the number. KPIT is not a skybus destination, any idea what this flight was for ? Testing a route maybe or unscheduled landing for weather etc ?

-Ken

Looks like a 2 hour diversion on the Portsmouth, NH to CMH flight. http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SKB2

Skybus planning more changes
 

Looks like Skybus is checking up on their growth a bit. They're still keeping their new aircraft order schedule, but plan to slow growth to 50% of what was originally planned.

According to today's Dispatch, come July 31 they'll be killing off and/or reducing frequency on some under-performing routes. Looks like they also plan to add a route or two as well. Due to popularity they're keeping the Burbank flight intact... their CEO also commented that Skybus "really likes Florida."

Full article is here

Also note that they are "loosening up its flight schedule" and "scheduling more time between flights." I think this is wise because the 25 minute turn arounds are too hard to achieve.

I wonder how much they're going to loosen that up. I always liked the 25-minute turns, and given that one of WN's early hallmarks was the 30-minute turn, I figured it wouldn't be much of an issue with SX.

I had friends on yesterday's CMH-St. Augustine flight. It was supposed to depart CMH sometime around 8pm. They decided to delay the flight until 8AM THIS MORNING. Of course, no phone call (since Skybus doesn't have the phone number). I guess they just got to the airport and found out it was delayed by about 12 hours. That is the risk you take when booking Skybus, I guess.

No thank you...I'll stick with DL, at least I can call them!

What are you talking about? They have no flight to SGJ at 8 p.m. In fact both SGJ flights on Friday left within an hour of scheduled departure. Also, they would just cancel the flight instead of delay until the morning because of how they schedule their aircraft. You're making this up!

Here's info on the Skybus expansion according to the Columbus Dispatch (link from A.net)

I think SX will eventually next major new routes is coming soon. Its should have another announcement for SGJ-CEF and along eother specific routes will be there. I heard SX has been done extremely very well over this winter from CMH/GSO/PSM-SGJ. Do you think what exactly SX can do next another routes is coming soon? I can see more logical choice from SX. I think SX is getting more opportunity into St. Augustine.