Skybus Airlines, a new airline based in Columbus, plans to begin flying in Spring 2007.

http://www.skybus.com/

Not much info on the website, except for a couple of news items and job opportunities.

Do you have any more info about this airline? Do you think the presence of Skybus will bring fares down in general?

Some tidbits:

Skybus will have at least 10 seats at $10 o/w fare on EVERY flight. Flights should start in May.

Planes will be A319s. They will do CMH-XXX-CMH-XXX-CMH-XXX etc. They plan to have the shortest daily time on the ground of any airline worldwide.

The planes will have Boeing-width seats on the 7" wider Airbus plane. The extra 7" will be put in the aisle to allow ppl to pass each other on boarding and deplaning. There will be no jetbridges and boarding will be through 2 doors. Skybus plans a 25 minute ground time. There will be no assigned seats. There will be no call center. All reservations will be internet based, check-in will be via kiosks.

Flight attendants will clean the planes.

Food and beverage will be sold onboard by Flight Attendants who work on commission.

Skybus is following Ryanair's business model. It will fly to alternate airports (BUR, for example) and will avoid any airports with expensive landing fees and long taxi times (e.g. ORD, JFK, LGA, EWR, LAX.)

I like it.

chrisny2, where do you get your info?

Thanks for the info.

I saw recent news about Skybus:
http://www.nbc4i.com/midwest/cmh/new...2-21-0010.html

After doing some research, this is what I found:

According to their About us part of their web site and an article frrom last March, Skybus intends to put in 150 seats into the Airbus 319's they just bought. If both sources are accurate, you can expect an easyJet type of seat pitch (29"). Another thing to consider is that, according to Wikipedia, Skybus intends to be "modeled after the European airline Ryanair". The aforementioned news article also mentions that a former top official from Ryanair, Charlie Clifton, has been working with the management of Skybus while it was raising start-up capital. As you can imagine, pilots are tickled pink at the prospect of flying for them. As far as I can tell, Skybus still hasn't decided where they will fly from Columbus, but as of last March, they have ruled out Las Vegas, Chicago and Tampa, Fla.

Awkward post script: after digging a little bit deeper, I came across this photo of a Skybus jet from airliners.net. I noticed that it only has one over-wing emergency exit. Don't you need more than that to carry 150 people on a 319, like easyjet does (easyJet has 156 seats in their 319's)? My google-fu is weak in this regard, but I remember reading that the maximum capacity of 319's and 737's with only one over wing exit is 137 or something in the US. Can anyone confirm?

Other sources I came across while researching this article:

Airline bulliten
Emerging Airlines Monitor

Virgin America (VX) has just announced that it will lease some of its A319's to Skybus while they continue to fight the DOT for approval. The big question here is if these "borrowed" planes from VX will have their awesome In-Flight Entertainment system installed yet or not. If it is, these early Skybus pax are gonna get spoiled rather quickly and all Hell will break loose once these A319's are returned to VX and Skybus is left w/ no IFE!

Oh boy. This is asking for trouble.



FA: "Sir, can I interest you in a beverage?"

Me: "No thanks."

FA: "Sir, let me put this another way. You can buy the hot coffee or you can wear it. Your choice."

Me: "Uh, make mine a double."

This report was recently stated in a Travel Agents Forum:

Skybus, the aspiring Columbus, Ohio-based carrier that has described itself as "ultra-low fare," told the Transportation Dept. that it "anticipates" starting service May 20, although it has not yet revealed the destinations it plans to serve.

Skybus also said it soon will ask the DOT for a waiver that will let it begin advertising and selling tickets before receiving its DOT certification.

Skybus already has its logo -- a stylized butterfly -- that can be seen on its homepage [www.skybus.com] alongside such marketing phrases as "It screams real low fares in a quiet butterfly kind of way," "The universal symbol for incredibly low airfares" and "Fly for the price of a tank of gas. Or less."

The carrier plans to launch all-coach service with A319 aircraft configured for 150 seats.

Looks like the date they are going to announce routes according to many people on airliners.net is April 24. It sounds as if PSM is a sure thing. Checked bags will be $5 for the first and another $5 for the second. This is all according to people on airliners.net so take it for what it's worth.

and they're off:

http://www.skybus.com/

looks like they only fly to/from cmh (for now, I hope!)

deleted

I ran a test booking on the Skybus website and could do BLI-CMH-BLI over the first weekend of June for $40.80, if I wanted to (I don't). The website will not allow you to purchase connections through CMH -- every sale seems to be to or from CMH. That's going to wear thin in a hurry.

So is the prohibition against bringing any of your own food or drink onboard. I predict a lot of fights over water bottles at the boarding gate.

I salute risk-takers but I do not think I would be interested in this airline.

I would do this, flying from Bellingham, if I determine that Columbus is worth a couple of days visit. Anyone with an opinion about that?

Yes. It isn't.

I predict this airline will go nowhere. I'm all for breaking the rules of the game and thinking outside the box but some of their "Rules of Flying" are downright condescending.

"Don't Call Us. We don't have a phone number."

"Don't be Late. We won't wait and we'll leave without you."

"Bring a Book."

"Don't Sneak Food Onboard."

I'm sort of paraphrasing here but I don't think the reaction of the average travelling public will be good. Nobody likes to be talked down to. I also don't like that all roads end or begin in Columbus, OH; I'm from Ohio and fly to CMH frequently. With a population of +/- 750,000 (US Census), CMH cannot be a large enough market to support all that traffic. I smell blood in the water here.

Tiger works in Asia because the flights are point to point between large business and tourist hubs. They're not flying from Bangkok (Pattaya) to Singapore (Johor Bahru). They're flying BKK-SIN frequently and competing fiercely at that. Southwest works because they're flying PHX-BUR and other core point-point routes frequently.

Madness. As Bethune once said, don't fly people where people don't want to go. Skybus will find itself competing against itself; the market is not there. Maybe I'm wrong and if in 12 months time they're off like a rocket, all drinks on me at the FT do. Hold me to that.