Yes, SX does not have received the authority from DOT for both CMH-NAS/CUN this time. Hopefully you will have wait to see if I can hear any more specific information from DOT. I will have your chance to response from DOT shortly. If SX will wins the rights for CMH-CUN approval and otherwise, SX will choose the specific dates will inauguration from CMH-CUN or NAS.

I flew Skybus from Newburgh-Columbus over the weekend, mainly due to B6 no longer serving CMH (I fly to Cincy biweekly but due to the PROHIIBITIVE fares into CVG (I'm looking at you, Delta) I often fly to CMH and drive the 100 or so miles.) I live in Westchester County so SWF is only maybe 10-15 minutes farther than JFK. First, flying out of SWF is an entirely pleasurable experience compared to LGA/JFK. $11 parking, no lines, and when you taxi out you're first in line for takeoff. The flight was fine, I had the row to myself and was actually a couple minutes early. The FA's are young and hungry but don't really push the selling too bad. Looked like about 1/2 the flight bought something. The return flight was a bit delayed (1/2 hour) but with the weather I found that to be reasonable. They didn't do a good job of informing of the delay on their website, however, and I rushed to CMH unnecessarily. Would I fly them again? Certainly, especially if they opened some new routes that were more desirable than just CMH (and GSO, for that matter).

I generally fly Jetblue if at all possible; Usair, Spirit, VX, United next; and avoid Delta/AA/Continental like the plague.

I've heard similar comments a number of times with regard to Skybus. Don't get me wrong, it's great for the passengers, but an airline cannot survive on $10 tickets and 1/3 of the plane filled.

Now that "Hartford" to Columbus is up to 2x daily, I've booked the first $20 same day ticket I could find.

$36.20 all in.

I'll report back on my flight in early April.

Oh, I agree. It was about 50% full outbound and 65% full inbound. Still, it was the first weekend of service from SWF and basically a flight to nowhere (something tells me Columbus isn't a hot weekend destination for New Yorkers... besides myself.)

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.

There was a posting on the Boston Globe blog about the Portsmouth to Newburgh routing. But they're going to market it as Boston to New York which seems a little disingenuous. If you were were actually looking to get from Boston proper to downtown New York it seems like you'd be better off just getting on a Greyhound bus which would take just as much time as getting out to PMH, flying to SWF and then finding transportation into Manhattan.

If you're going from surroundings to surroundings that's a different story but I'm sure they're not going to make that distinction in their ads.

I think if you live anywhere witin an hour of portsmouth and want a weekend in NYC this is a great opportunity. The port authority of NY has arranged for a $1 bus from the airport to the train station which will take you directly into Manhattan. Of course the train fare is another $15 but what the heck, you don't have to worry about being on a fung wah bus or huge parking fees in NY.

-Ken

flight schedule changes
 

I have a trip planned with my son to vist some major league baseball stadiums within driving distance of Columbus via Skybus. My original flight into Columbus was supposed to arrive around 10 a.m. so we could have a nice leasurely drive to Pittsburgh for the first game. In checking the schedules after June 1, the flight time of this flight has change to FOUR HOURS LATER !!! Now it will be a mad scramble for the rental car and hope there are no delays either on the plane or on the highway !!

AFter going to the skybus website I found that I can change the flight to the night before without charge!!!

This is GREAT news....good going skybus !

-Ken

Skybus changed schedules on me once as well, and sent me a nice little e-mail informing me that since the change was so drastic I was welcome to change or cancel the trip at no extra charge. ^^

August Skybus tix are now on sale, get those $10 seats while they are still available !!!

UAL123,

Could you do this again with the post June 1st changes ? Tell me to go away if it's too much work !!!

Thanks,

Ken

It's official news releases from Skybus
 

Hi all,

It's already official news releases from Skybus will inauguration new routes from CEF/RIC-SGJ nonstop goes on effective June 1, 2008 and also, CEF-PGD & SWF-PSM, too.

Here the recently previously routes will being discontinuation some cities is:

Because SX will have chance reductions the frequencies flight from CMH. Also, SX has been discontinuation from CMH-CHA. What about other specific routes does current still served from CMH?

Here the press releases from SX will inauguration some routes from CEF/RIC-SGJ & CEF-PGD. Here it is:

http://ask.skybus.com/about/skybus/s...ssReleaseID=42

Thanks all. :)

I am a reporter at The Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey who writes about airlines. I am looking to interview people about their experience with Skybus. If you are available, can you reply? Thanks.

I flew Skybus yesterday from MKE-CMH on a $25 fare and my experience was surprisingly good. Checked in online about 23 hours before departure and got sequence number 7, which put me in seating area 2 (the first group to board after those who paid extra for "Priority Boarding" in group 1). The flight was less than half full, so I had a whole row to myself, one row from the back. Everything ran on time and the meal service wasn't bad...got a roast beef sandwich on ciabatta for $8, a small can of Pringles for $2, and a full can of Pepsi for $2. A little pricey for what you get, yes, but worth it for the convenience factor and not all that much more than what many airport restaurants charge. There was even an inflight magazine.

The flight attendants were kind of trashy looking as they all wore Skybus t-shirts, non-uniform-issue black pants, and sneakers, but provided good service. We deplaned from the rear in CMH using airstairs (no jetways at most Skybus stations, though MKE uses a jetway as the gate and staff for Skybus flights there belong to Continental).

The experience was very smooth and I would gladly fly Skybus again...but one flight a day in a market doesn't do much good for business travel, and I don't think Skybus is ever going to fill up an A319 in a market like MKE-CMH (neither MKE nor CMH is a "leisure" destination). The new Florida routes are probably a better choice...I have no doubt Skybus could easily sell all the seats if they were ever to fly MKE-Punta Gorda or MKE-FLL.

Looks like they are using one less plane from my previous schedule post and they are giving more than 25 minute turn-arounds on some segments.

As of June 1

Plane 1
CMH PSM 7:15 AM 8:56 AM
PSM SWF 9:21 AM 10:16 AM
SFW PSM 10:41 AM 11:36 AM
PSM CMH 12:01 PM 1:50 PM
CMH FLL 2:35 PM 5:01 PM
FLL CMH 5:26 PM 7:53 PM
CMH GSO 8:18 PM 9:24 PM
GSO CMH 9:49 PM 10:53 PM

Plane 2
CMH PGD 6:05 AM 8:22 AM
PGD CMH 8:47 AM 11:04 AM
CMH MCI 12:06 PM 12:52 PM
MCI CMH 1:17 PM 3:52 PM
CMH RIC 4:27 PM 5:34 PM
RIC SGJ 6:04 PM 7:38 PM
SGJ RIC 8:03 PM 9:35 PM
RIC CMH 10:05 PM 11:16 PM

Plane 3
CMH CEF 7:00 AM 8:33 AM
CEF SGJ 8:58 AM 11:24 AM
SGJ CEF 11:49 AM 2:09 PM
CEF PGD 2:54 PM 5:49 PM
PGD CEF 6:14 PM 9:05 PM
CEF CMH 9:30 PM 11:14 PM

Plane 4
CMH SGJ 5:45 AM 7:34 AM
SGJ PSM 7:59 AM 10:27 AM
PSM PGD 10:52 AM 2:08 PM
PGD PSM 2:53 PM 5:54 PM
PSM SGJ 6:19 PM 9:00 PM
SGJ CMH 9:25 PM 11:16 PM

Plane 5
CMH BUR 8:31 AM 10:12 AM ex.Wed
BUR CMH 10:37 AM 5:45 PM ex. Wed
CMH PSM 7:31 PM 9:12 PM ex. Sat
PSM CMH 9:37 PM 11:26 PM ex. Sat

Plane 6
CMH FLL 6:30 AM 8:56 AM ex. Tues
FLL CMH 9:21 AM 11:48 AM ex. Tues
CMH ILG 12:13 PM 1:22 PM
ILG CMH 1:47 PM 3:04 PM
Either
CMH SWF 3:51 PM 5:15 PM
SWF CMH 5:40 PM 7:10 PM
CMH PGD 7:35 PM 9:52 PM
PGD CMH 10:17 PM 12:34 AM
or
CMH SGJ 3:44 PM 5:33 PM
SGJ CMH 5:58 PM 7:49 PM
CMH GPT 8:14 PM 9:15 PM
GPT CMH 9:40 PM 12:33 AM

Plane 7
CMH RIC 6:15 AM 7:22 AM
RIC CMH 7:52 AM 9:03 AM
CMH GSO 9:28 AM 10:34 AM
GSO CMH 10:59 AM 12:03 PM
CMH MKE 12:28 PM 12:38 PM
MKE CMH 1:03 PM 3:06 PM
Either
CMH SWF 3:51 PM 5:15 PM
SWF CMH 5:40 PM 7:10 PM
CMH PGD 7:35 PM 9:52 PM
PGD CMH 10:17 PM 12:34 AM
or
CMH SGJ 3:44 PM 5:33 PM
SGJ CMH 5:58 PM 7:49 PM
CMH GPT 8:14 PM 9:15 PM
GPT CMH 9:40 PM 12:33 AM

Plane 8
GSO BUR 5:45 AM 7:53 AM ex. Wed
BUR GSO 8:18 AM 3:55 PM ex. Wed
GSO ILG 4:40 PM 5:45 PM
ILG GSO 6:10 PM 7:25 PM
GSO FLL 7:50 PM 9:43 PM
FLL GSO 10:08 PM 12:00 AM

Plane 9
GSO PSM 6:15 AM 8:06 AM
PSM GSO 8:31 AM 10:28 AM
GSO SGJ 11:15 AM 12:34 PM
SGJ GSO 12:59 PM 2:18 PM
Either
GSO CEF 3:13 PM 4:47 PM
CEF GSO 5:12 PM 6:59 PM
GSO SWF 7:24 PM 9:02 PM
SWF GSO 9:27 PM 11:02 PM
or
GSO GYY 3:18 PM 3:58 PM
GYY GSO 4:23 PM 6:56 PM
GSO PSM 7:21 PM 9:12 PM
PSM GSO 9:37 PM 11:34 PM

Plane 10
GSO FLL 5:45 AM 7:38 AM
FLL GSO 8:03 AM 9:55 AM
GSO PGD 10:20 AM 12:07 PM
PGD GSO 12:32 PM 2:18 PM
Either
GSO CEF 3:13 PM 4:47 PM
CEF GSO 5:12 PM 6:59 PM
GSO SWF 7:24 PM 9:02 PM
SWF GSO 9:27 PM 11:02 PM
or
GSO GYY 3:18 PM 3:58 PM
GYY GSO 4:23 PM 6:56 PM
GSO PSM 7:21 PM 9:12 PM
PSM GSO 9:37 PM 11:34 PM

nevermind :-)

Next time be sure to ask them to heat up the sandwich, they'll gladly do it for you and it becomes a "first class" meal all of a sudden! They also use a jetway at Newburgh/Stewart.

Most folks Ive talked with love Skybus, and if you listen up in the gate area...you'll hear many pax talking about how excited they are about Skybus and how little they paid for their ticket. SX is gaining a host of loyal flyers, but the ascension needs to be a lot faster in today's high fuel market!

Sad to see GSO-GPT discontinued...is this a market pullout for them from GPT?

On another note, last time I flew into SWF on SX, there were as many as a dozen biz travelers...I saw them on the way and up and back down. They were flying in for the day. Skybus is indeed appealing to a wide variety of travelers, much to everyone's disbelief.

Good tip! They use jetways at MCI as well.

Nope, they are still flying CMH-GPT.

For those who like to complain about Skybus...there are several flights that sell out regularly. By searching Skybus.com and trying to purchase 10 tickets, the sold out flights appear...several days GSO-BUR, GSO-PGD, GSO-SGJ, and GSO-Hartford/Chicopee appear sold out over the coming weeks.

I think people buy more last minute tickets with Skybus, and the route planners have to keep searching for routes like this where flights will perform well. Of course, there are also days where the loads are a lot lighter, but these S/O flights cant hurt!

Skybus Airlines' CEO, Bill Diffenderffer, has resigned, the airline announced today. He will be replaced by the company's CFO, Mike Hodge, effective immediately.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content...kybus_ceo.html

Skybus addint Portsmouth as focus city ??
 

According to theairdb.com Portsmouth, NH is being added as a focus city with new destinations !! I hope this is not an april fools joke !!!

-Ken

"Skybus Airlines Inc. will announce in a conference this afternoon that Portsmouth will be its third 'focus city' with twelve daily flights from the airport to eight cities across the country. The new destinations are Austin, Gulfport, Chicago Gary, Wilmington, Kansas City and Providenciales and will start between June and July. The airline will also add a further daily flight on two existing destinations: Columbus and Punta Gorda. Airline said it is likely additional flights and cities will be added in the future. The airline says it will create 175 jobs as part of this move.Tickets for all new routes go on sale at 12 am tomorrow. "

http://www.theairdb.com/news/2008-04-01-skybus.html

Will this be their first flight to the Caribbean with Providenciales?

Yes if true, jaunted.com has Skybus denying the rumor. However I thought that theairdb.com got their route information from DOT records of routes that have been requested/approved.

-Ken

Typically, we've been able to predict new routes by checking the flight status section of their web site and the drop down seemed to show new routes before the booking engine. Today, that's not the case.

Skybus Trip report
Wednesday, April 2nd 2008

CEF-CMH-CEF i.e. "Hartford"-Columbus

I purchased my ticket about 8 weeks out, and paid $20 plus taxes and fees for $36.50 all-in.

The Chicopee, MA airport is adjoined with Westdover Airforce base. I was flying out on flight 52 at 11:48am, returning later that evening, but the parking lot attendants wouldn't let me park in short term parking for $3. About a block away is long term parking where I had to prepay $5 for the day's parking. A shuttle bus is provided to take pax back to the terminal, and I climbed aboard but would have done better to walk the short distance rather than wait for them to pick up more pax . The passenger terminal had one counter with 5 employees working, but I headed right to a kiosk to print my boarding pass. The check-in was very easy, and the kiosk is on par with NWA's self check in. It also offered to check me in for my afternoon flight back to CEF. There is a one-seater bathroom in the check-in area, no bathrooms beyond the TSA check point.

I showed up about 50 minutes before my flight, took 2 minutes to check in, 5 minutes to wait for obvious infrequent flyers to navigate the TSA checkpoint, and was in the Departure Lounge just as a delay of 30 minutes was announced. The CEF Departure Lounge is room large enough to hold about 120 chairs, cinder block walls painted light blue and a coke machine and vending machine with chips. As a nice touch FREE wifi is offered! Using retractable straps they have an area for boarding groups 1, 2 & 3. I didn't pay the extra $15 to board with group one so I was in group two. With 30 minutes before were are supposed to take off I count 36 pax waiting for a plane that holds 150.

While waiting it was interesting to overhear several pax talking about Skybus, the new flights that they are adding out of CEF, now to Florida and Greensboro; at least one couple had flown them before and were relating their experience to another pax sitting next to them. Basically they complained that flights were always delayed, but you get what you pay for.

10 minutes after we were scheduled to take off, I used the wifi to check skybus.com to check flight status, which still indicates our flight was on-time.

The incoming flight from CMH landed at 11:59am and quickly offloaded 43 Pax. The GA made several announcements including a request to board quickly as they had a goal to turn the plan in 23 minutes. Group 1 boarding was called, and 7 pax who had paid the extra fee boarded, the GA then boarded two families with lap children, then general boarding. I was about 7th in line for group two and was surprised to see how many people had crammed into the first few rows, I was able to get an aisle seat in the exit row (row 10). Only one other pax had selected the exit row at this point, taking one of the window seats. The back half of the aircraft had no more than 12 people. In total 56 pax board the aircraft.

The pilot got on the intercom just before the door closed with general announcements about the weather, and asked that we "tell your family and friends, and even people you don't like about us, as that's how we keep ticket prices low"

As the only flight in and out of CEF, once the door was closed, it was the shortest taxi I can remember. The three FA's hardly had time to finish their safety briefing and get seated before we were airborne.

FA's wore black pants with black long sleeve t-shirts with the Skybus logo, as well as a pinned on set of gold FA wings.

The amount of items for sale was quite impressive. 6 in 1 travel game for $10, airplane backpack for $10, craft kits for $10-20, blankets for $10, headphone splitter for $5, perfume $35-60, watches up to $200, Bagels or Blueberry Muffins for $3, Snack boxes and sandwiches for $8, Drinks $2-5 and candy $2. The in-flight sales were quite efficient; FA's carried a small hand held device to take orders and swipe credit cards, and walked back to the galley to bring each purchase, so there were no carts in the aisle. FA's were polite and efficient. I would estimate that 80% of pax bought something. Despite the policy of not bringing food onboard, no one said anything to the guy in my row who brought on his own bottle of coke purchased from the vending machine in the departure lounge.

My first flight was on the aircraft with the Nationwide livery. The width in the exit row seat (row 10) was tight, but the seat reclined and the pitch was very generous. The seats are quite thin, but covered in gray leather and were fine for Skybus's mostly short flights. The aircraft must have been quite new as instead of a lighted "No Smoking" sign, there was a "Turn Off Electronics" sign next to the fasten seat belt sign.

Because we left late, and had a strong headwind on the way there we landed 50 minutes late.

I spent my 5 hours in CMH by having lunch at Charlie's Subs in the airport, then catching the free shuttle to the Hilton Easton. I walked to the Easton mall area and visited Barnes and Noble as well as a Panara Bread to use their free wifi, I stopped at a few more shops and then caught the shuttle back to the airport, had a salad at Max & Erma's, took about 10 minutes to get though security and was at the gate an hour before my flight.

At CMH people lined up to board a lot sooner than they had at CEF; a whole half hour before the flight people were already in line so I kept my seat and was the last to board the aircraft after boarding was called. The flight to CEF had 45 people on board, and I overheard a FA say that 80 tickets had been sold meaning there were 35 no-shows.

The flight back was on a much older and much dirtier A319. Dark blue leather seats in the layout as shown on seatguru.com. All six seats in the exit row were taken, but I was able to claim an entire row to myself in the back half of the plane; there were quite a few rows with nobody in them. One big surprise on the flight back, there was IFE! I noticed pushing the channel/volume button on the armrest light up the display, so I plugged in my head phones and was shocked to find a dozen music stations available to listen to.

Like my morning flight we had an incredible fast push back, taxi and take off, and landed in CEF 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Rather than wait for the shuttle I walked the 2000 feet to my car and even though I was the last pax out of the plane I was the first person out of the parking lot.

Would I fly Skybus again? Certainly Now that they will be flying from CEF to Florida I'll be on the look out for more $36.50 all-in fares, and I would fly them as long as their price as at least half the cost or lower of NWA or another airline I can earn frequent flyer miles on. I'm still willing to pay more for an airline with a larger flight schedule in case things go wrong.

Final thoughts: The web site still showed my first flight as "on-time" even when it was already over a half hour late. :td:
The boards in CMH are a bit confusing as in some places the flight is listed as "Chicopee" and in other places "Westdover" No where is it listed as "Hartford" even though that's how they market the flight as. :td:
The FA's are not pushy with their sales pitch at all ^
The seat width and pitch on the two planes seemed no worse than flights I've taken with AirTran or Frontier