Skybus

[minniebeth]

I know Skybus does not fly into Orlando, but has anyone had the chance to fly on Skybus? If so, what was the experience like? Any info. would be great!

 

[Joel110]

Their inaugural flight w/passengers was just this week (Tuesday I believe) and they're starting out slow. So I doubt there's too many experienced Skybus fliers yet, especially since I think they're only doing about 10 roundtrip flights a day right now.

However, I think it could be the start of an exciting thing for Columbus. It looks like they have a lot of backing financially, an interesting business model and spurring some interest from media/consumers with their 10 tickets for $10 on every flight.

However, I can't see it being a "Columbus" airline only, they need support from residents in the destination cities too. I'm sure they'll enhance their system, but currently, all flights start or end in Columbus. Meaning, if someone wants to fly LA to Boston, they actually have to book two tickets. One to Columbus and another from Columbus to Boston. Plus, with the limited flight schedule, no more than two roundtrip flights per day to each destination, means someone could arrive in Columbus and need to hang around for 12-24 hours before the next flight to their end destination.

I think how quick they can get that issue addressed and improve the flight scheduling/ticketing for fliers who are connecting through Columbus may really determine the long-term viability of Skybus.

 

[bicker]

Well, don't undersell Columbus. If I'm not mistaken, it's the most populous state capital in the country. There is a big airport there, built to be a hub, but built just before things got bad in the industry, so it was simply never utilitized. It's centrally located, and less expensive to operate out of than Pittsburgh was. It could be a good place to build a small airline from.

Having said that, this is a really bad time to be starting an airline. The industry already has too much capacity and competition has, until recently, driven the industry into the red year-after-year. I hope the authorities don't give this airline any breaks, because the damage they're doing to the industry's viability eventually comes out of taxpayer pockets when we have to assume, yet again, another failing airlines financial obligations.

 

[Joel110]

Well, don't undersell Columbus. If I'm not mistaken, it's the most populous state capital in the country. There is a big airport there, built to be a hub, but built just before things got bad in the industry, so it was simply never utilitized. It's centrally located, and less expensive to operate out of than Pittsburgh was. It could be a good place to build a small airline from.

I didn't intend to undersell Columbus, I'm from Columbus and we have enough problems with our "college town" image. I appreciate the good comments on Columbus. I did indicate it was an exciting opportunity for Columbus and had huge local financial backing. To expand, the city offered around $57 Million in tax incentives and Skybus raised around $230 million in startup capital (the most in history raised for a startup airline). A lot of the startup funds were raised from local corporate businesses like Huntington Bank, Nationwide Insurance, Wolfe Enterprises, Batelle, as well as support from Fidelity Investments and Morgan Stanley.

Your right that Columbus airport is built to support a hub. America West based their east U.S. hub here until 2003. Since then, the city has tried to attract an airline to make a hub here. After lack of interest, I guess they decided to create their own.

As for the "largest city", that's more of a "fact", but "not the whole story" thing. Columbus is also technically the largest city in Ohio. The city of Columbus has about 700,000 residents, Cleveland has about 500,000 and Cincinnati has about 340,000. Obviously, including metro areas, Columbus isn't as large as Cleveland or Cincinnati. However, I believe including the metro areas, there are about 1.2 million people in the Columbus area. Additionally, Columbus airport competes with Dayton airport to attract a lot of Cincinnati travelers. Cincinnati is a major hub for Delta. Delta basically monopolizes that airport and a trip 1-1/2 hours up the road can save many Cincinnati travelers a few hundred dollars.

I do think it's great for Columbus and that it has a lot of support here, but I think it's a lot to ask for Columbus alone to make Skybus survive, so they will need to be somewhat user friendly for someone trying to fly from Seattle to Ft. Lauderdale or Boston to LA because long layovers and booking each "leg" separately may be too inconvenient to justify any savings.