Skybus=$10 Tickets

Old Pete said:
What are you talking about? They haven't flown their first flight. How can they already be late? How can they be lying about never being late on flights they have yet to fly?
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They say they won't be late.

That's BS.

Name one airline with 100 percent on time performance.

You can't, because there isn't one.
 
Tony's right. All it will take is one CMH snow storm, and that little "never late" thing will go away VERY quickly. I'd say the media would be all over it, but it's an upstart airline. I'm sure the media will think they're the greatest thing since the Wright Brothers.
 
I have... a vision! I see a desert... full... of orange Airbuses!

Oh look! Here come the Mythbusters!
 
You know, I hope when Skybus fails it finally quells the notion that all passengers are just looking for the lowest fare and that's it. Pax will generally gravitate to the lowest cost, but only within the context of the comparative quality that they expect. When Skybus squanders the very last of their passengers goodwill and patience and wonders why it can't fill it's aircraft profitably, perhaps it will serve as a wakeup call to the airline flying public: You get what you pay for, but sometimes, you don't even get that.
 
I'm taking pre-orders for AirBUSES.

"Enjoy a bus that can hold 170 people in an A-319 that drives with a REAL SIDESTICK!"

"Impress your friends and hot babes alike!"

"Be the envy of the next airplane spotter's Meet 'n Greet!"
 
Old Pete said:
Wow, they say that with a straight face? No, no one is on time 100%
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I am not kidding.

See this, from their website.

Don’t be late. We won’t be.


Uh, yeah, whatever. One snowstorm in the midwest and they're in a world of crap without a paddle.
 
I honestly don't think the ten people buying $10 dollar tickets give a hoot if they need to pay for their peanuts. However, those paying $300 dollars will.

This concept alone dissolves their corporate synergy enterprise vanguard algorithm.
 
CapnJim said:
You know, I hope when Skybus fails it finally quells the notion that all passengers are just looking for the lowest fare and that's it. Pax will generally gravitate to the lowest cost, but only within the context of the comparative quality that they expect. When Skybus squanders the very last of their passengers goodwill and patience and wonders why it can't fill it's aircraft profitably, perhaps it will serve as a wakeup call to the airline flying public: You get what you pay for, but sometimes, you don't even get that.
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Well, don't confuse TICKET price with TOTAL price. It's like the "free" phone you get from your cell company. "Oh, you wanted a battery, too? That's 15 bucks. You want to CHARGE the battery? That's another 10 bucks."

And so on. By the time these "$10 tickets" add in taxes, fees, surcharges, etc and then tack on charges for food, blankets, checked baggage, and so on, give you one guess about what the ticket is gonna cost...


(about like any other LCC)
 
kellwolf said:
I agree with whomever said it. I think they'll get a lot of one time fliers, and people will get tired of being nickel and dimed to death. I don't think many people will say "Well, I only paid $10 for the fare, so I guess it's okay to pay to check my bag and buy food on the plane," I think they'll say "WHAT! But I already PAID for the ticket!" There's a reason all inclusive cruises are a big hit with Americans.....
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That's freakin' brilliant .. like, "Costco Brand Airlines." You pay a yearly membership fee and get discounted airfare and free ammenities (boarding first, a WHOLE can of Coke). The more you fly, the more you save! (:sarcasm:, sorta).
 
Minuteman said:
That's freakin' brilliant .. like, "Costco Brand Airlines." You pay a yearly membership fee and get discounted airfare and free ammenities (boarding first, a WHOLE can of Coke). The more you fly, the more you save! (:sarcasm:, sorta).
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Sam's Club already has a travel benefits thing.....no, really.
 
A few bullet points about this misguided adventure that I picked up over on Airliners.net (yes, there are sometimes some coherent threads over there) that I think will doom this airline:

1.) Buried deep in their privacy rules, they explicitly state that they will SELL your name, address, and phone number to marketing agencies. In addition, their "vacation packages" link sends to a phone number which turns out to be people selling condo packages (or some scam on that order).

2.) The airline is "hubbed" out of CMH -- no flights "connect." If you want to go from Boston (which, incidentally, turns out to be Portsmouth, NH) to Seattle (which, again, turns out to be Bellingham -- a good 2 hour drive), you have to book 2 separate flights. Which means you have to book the PSM-CMH r/t separately from the BLI r/t. If you have to check baggage, you have to leave the secure area, claim your bag, wait online to recheck it, recheck it, clear security, and hopefully make your flight. Since you booked two seperate flights, they're not responsible if you miss your 'connection.'

Since some 'connections' don't leave until the next day, that will require an overnight in CMH. So, that $10 dollar fare can easily turn out to be more than $300 when you factor in all incidental costs to go transcon on them.

3.) The airline is 'hubbed' (or maybe based would be a better word) out of CMH. What are they driving at? Since this airline is so connection unfriendly, I can only figure that they're going after the O&D market. You can't tell me that 156 people a day want to go to BLI or FLL.

In addition, no business person is going to want to fly this airline. So, they are going after the leisure market. An airline cannot possibly survive on leisure traffic alone. That kind of traffic ebbs and flows. I can't see 156 people going to FLL on a Tuesday in September.

4.) Staffing... where do I begin? They're going to minimize staff at the airports and go strictly to kiosks. Yep... great plan! During IRROPs, the computer will automagically reroute you to the next available flight. Sounds good in theory, but I have yet to see a kiosk machine work 100% of the time. If they all go down, what then?

That's a just a few of the juicy tidbits I picked up. The more I read about this airline, the more I want to laugh at it. I don't know who dreamed up this abortion of an airline, but they must have their head up their backside if they ever think this formula will work. Maybe if they centered this airline in a city where there's heavy O&D, but CMH?! I agree CMH would make a great hub airport (for connections only, like DTW or ORD), it makes a poor choice for something like this (especially when they have 65 some-odd A319s on order).

Maybe I'm wrong... but I give this airline a year tops (maybe longer because it can languish in Ch. 11 for a long time).
 
PurduePilot said:
A few bullet points about this misguided adventure that I picked up over on Airliners.net (yes, there are sometimes some coherent threads over there) that I think will doom this airline:
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I think this will change pretty quickly in the short term - they don't hub in CMH, they're just based there. Their model is direct flight which, while I agree they don't offer them now except to CMH, they'll start building the point to point structure over time. I think out of the gate they need to take delivery of planes and train crews to get up to speed. We have to assume that they're not insane, and no sane person thinks a) CMH is a destination area and b) that claiming and re-checking baggage is going to work for anyone.

I don't think they're a long term bet, but I think longer than a year. The model is proven, it works in Europe and before growth changed them SouthWest had a similar model. If they're lucky they can go a while, if they're unlucky some event will overtake them and kill them - but I give them more than a year before that happens.

Kudos to them for trying something different, it's not like the current airline model is anything to write home about.....
 
CFIse said:
before growth changed them SouthWest had a similar model.
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How ya figure? I can see the "flying into smaller communities" bit, but even SWA didn't nickel and dime their passengers to death. That's a bigger part of the Skybus business model than the small airports.
 
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