Yes JC, there truly is a God: Skybus is dead!
- Thread starter SlumTodd_Millionaire
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JA Yawd Bwoy
Well-Known Member
Like said above, I do not think VA is going anywhere for now. Richards is just too wealthy and has many many resources, I mean this is making like his 3rd airline right? Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Nigeria, Virgin America?
OldTownPilot
Well-Known Member
Fifth, Virgin Express out of Brussels (now merged with someone else), and Virgin Blue in Australia.
ASpilot2be
Qbicle seat warmer
And Virgin Sun, a charter airline he created.
ASpilot2be
Qbicle seat warmer
They merged with Air Berlin.
ComplexHiAv8r
Well-Known Member
It was all the chatter as I flew past CMH this evening. I didn't think it would be this quick.
OldTownPilot
Well-Known Member
Whoops, Well I knew it was more than three.
DeltaAVL
New Member
I jumped out of my chair when I read this. Congrats to the industry!
How 'bout SunCountry?
SlumTodd_Millionaire
Most Hated Member
Haven't really seen anything unusual from Sun Country. Seasonal furloughs aren't unusual for them.
Polar742
All the responsibility none of the authority
Any guesses as to how long Neeleman's non-compete is?Next time the market heats up and there is some pricing traction, there will be a revelation that airfares are overpriced, and the travelling public needs to be freed from the draconian grasp of airlines for a refreshing travel experience.
This new entity will have nice shiney airplanes (prolly the NG single aisle airbus or 737 since all the airlines are going to reduce their capital spending for the next 5 years), promise a new, low stress experience, all for a fare less than any of "today's" carriers can provide.
It will probably be point-to-point from some under-utilized hub with an underserved market (PIT or STL anyone).
Then the legacies will put single class seats in their turdball narrowbody fleets (excpet NWA, the DC-9 will not get repainted). Paint silly logos on the planes, have bright interiors, and goofy ad campaigns.
Nahh....couldn't happen that way...could it?
SlumTodd_Millionaire
Most Hated Member
Their stock is hovering at $2/share and facing the possibility of de-listing on the exchange. Several big losses over the past year, small cash position, etc... SWA really put a hurt to them in DEN.
frog_flyer
FredFlyer
Skybus is DONE-Z0
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2008/04/04/skybust.html
Skybus Airlines has made its final flight.
Just over 10 months after its heralded takeoff at Port Columbus, the airline that became famous for its $10 fares said Friday evening that its final flight of the day would be its last.
The decision, made after a Friday board meeting, left hundreds of Skybus ticketholders stranded and its 450 employees out of work.
The company has lost millions of dollars and plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday. Its chief executive, Bill Diffenderffer, resigned about two weeks ago.
The company’s new CEO, Mike Hodge, blamed oil prices and a slowing economy for the abrupt shutdown.
“We deeply regret this decision and the impact this will have on our employees and their families, our customers, our vendors and other partners, and the communities in which we have been operating,” Hodge said in a statement. “Skybus struggled to overcome the combination of rising jet fuel costs and a slowing economic environment. These two issues proved to be insurmountable for a new carrier.”
Skybus is based in Columbus. Port Columbus invested millions in terminal improvements tailored to Skybus, and has profited from its growth.
David Whitaker, vice president of business development at Port Columbus, said the loss of Skybus will certainly present a short-term setback.
“Our (passenger) numbers swelled when Skybus came in. The market will retract accordingly without them here,” Whitaker said.
Skybus’ presence has been cited as the reason several airlines dropped service from Port Columbus. JetBlue Airlines left all together, and Delta Air Lines and Midwest Airlines both cut routes to markets that Skybus also served.
The failure of Skybus here is “not a reflection on the market itself,…it’s a difficult economic condition,” Whitaker said. But he added: “Certainly, it’s something other carriers will ask us about when they’re looking at Columbus as a potential market. It’s something we’ll have to explain.”
At least two industry experts, though, said Skybus’ problems were there from the beginning.
“It was a weak business model to begin with,” said Nawal Taneja, head of the aviation department at The Ohio State University. “The fact is, the economy tends to hurt high-fare airlines, not low-fare ones. Their fares and cost structure were out of line… Fuel prices rising is the type of thing you have to factor in when you do your risk analysis. If you didn’t do that, then your management was very weak from the start.”
Mike Boyd of the Colorado-based Boyd Group has also been a critic of the Skybus model, but expressed surprise at the swiftness of the airline’s demise.
“They had a dumb model. The original plan never had a chance, at $50 a barrel oil or $100 a barrel oil,” he said. “But I really though someone could come in and turn it around. The pressures on airlines today are very different than they have been in the past. They’re shutting down suddenly now to preserve whatever assets they have for the creditors.”
Fidelity and Morgan Stanley, two of the biggest investors in the $160 million startup, have representatives on the board. Fidelity holds about 12.6 percent of the privately-held company’s stock, and Morgan Stanley 6.4 percent. Nationwide Mutual Capital was the biggest local investor, with a 5 percent share.
Battelle, Huntington Capital Investment Co. and Wolfe Enterprises Inc., a subsidiary of The Dispatch Printing Company, were among the local entities that contributed the original seed money for the airline. The airline was also granted $57 million in state and local incentives, although most came in the form of such things as tax breaks and airport improvements.
Skybus founder John S. Weikle, who had tried unsuccessfully to start another airline in Dayton, approached Port Columbus leaders soon after America West announced it was pulling its hub here in early 2003.
Sandwiched between the major hub cities of Cleveland and Cincinnati, Columbus has long struggled to maintain consistent nonstop service to key destinations outside of other hub cities such as New York and Chicago. Business and community leaders hoped that as the “hometown airline,” Skybus would buffer Columbus somewhat from the vagaries of the industry.
Skybus got off to a strong start last summer, bringing tens of thousands more passengers through Port Columbus. In turn, the airport added parking spaces and raked in millions in additional parking revenue as it reached an all-time record passenger count of more than 7.7 million for 2007.
But Skybus hit a rough patch during the winter. With a very short window between flights and a crush of flights all leaving within an hour of each other first thing in the morning, dealing with ice and snow took its toll on on-time performance. The airline had to cancel more than a dozen flights Christmas Day and the day after, when two of its seven planes went out of commission as a result of mechanical problems.
Poor performance coupled with a lack of customer service took its toll. Passenger numbers dropped in the slow months of January and February, as the airline struggled to build up its new base in Greensboro, N.C. Route cuts last month were quickly followed by the replacement of the CEO by former Chief Financial Officer Hodge, who was charged with improving performance and stemming losses.
But it was apparently too little, too late to turn the airline around.
Nice predictions people.
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2008/04/04/skybust.html
Skybus Airlines has made its final flight.
Just over 10 months after its heralded takeoff at Port Columbus, the airline that became famous for its $10 fares said Friday evening that its final flight of the day would be its last.
The decision, made after a Friday board meeting, left hundreds of Skybus ticketholders stranded and its 450 employees out of work.
The company has lost millions of dollars and plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday. Its chief executive, Bill Diffenderffer, resigned about two weeks ago.
The company’s new CEO, Mike Hodge, blamed oil prices and a slowing economy for the abrupt shutdown.
“We deeply regret this decision and the impact this will have on our employees and their families, our customers, our vendors and other partners, and the communities in which we have been operating,” Hodge said in a statement. “Skybus struggled to overcome the combination of rising jet fuel costs and a slowing economic environment. These two issues proved to be insurmountable for a new carrier.”
Skybus is based in Columbus. Port Columbus invested millions in terminal improvements tailored to Skybus, and has profited from its growth.
David Whitaker, vice president of business development at Port Columbus, said the loss of Skybus will certainly present a short-term setback.
“Our (passenger) numbers swelled when Skybus came in. The market will retract accordingly without them here,” Whitaker said.
Skybus’ presence has been cited as the reason several airlines dropped service from Port Columbus. JetBlue Airlines left all together, and Delta Air Lines and Midwest Airlines both cut routes to markets that Skybus also served.
The failure of Skybus here is “not a reflection on the market itself,…it’s a difficult economic condition,” Whitaker said. But he added: “Certainly, it’s something other carriers will ask us about when they’re looking at Columbus as a potential market. It’s something we’ll have to explain.”
At least two industry experts, though, said Skybus’ problems were there from the beginning.
“It was a weak business model to begin with,” said Nawal Taneja, head of the aviation department at The Ohio State University. “The fact is, the economy tends to hurt high-fare airlines, not low-fare ones. Their fares and cost structure were out of line… Fuel prices rising is the type of thing you have to factor in when you do your risk analysis. If you didn’t do that, then your management was very weak from the start.”
Mike Boyd of the Colorado-based Boyd Group has also been a critic of the Skybus model, but expressed surprise at the swiftness of the airline’s demise.
“They had a dumb model. The original plan never had a chance, at $50 a barrel oil or $100 a barrel oil,” he said. “But I really though someone could come in and turn it around. The pressures on airlines today are very different than they have been in the past. They’re shutting down suddenly now to preserve whatever assets they have for the creditors.”
Fidelity and Morgan Stanley, two of the biggest investors in the $160 million startup, have representatives on the board. Fidelity holds about 12.6 percent of the privately-held company’s stock, and Morgan Stanley 6.4 percent. Nationwide Mutual Capital was the biggest local investor, with a 5 percent share.
Battelle, Huntington Capital Investment Co. and Wolfe Enterprises Inc., a subsidiary of The Dispatch Printing Company, were among the local entities that contributed the original seed money for the airline. The airline was also granted $57 million in state and local incentives, although most came in the form of such things as tax breaks and airport improvements.
Skybus founder John S. Weikle, who had tried unsuccessfully to start another airline in Dayton, approached Port Columbus leaders soon after America West announced it was pulling its hub here in early 2003.
Sandwiched between the major hub cities of Cleveland and Cincinnati, Columbus has long struggled to maintain consistent nonstop service to key destinations outside of other hub cities such as New York and Chicago. Business and community leaders hoped that as the “hometown airline,” Skybus would buffer Columbus somewhat from the vagaries of the industry.
Skybus got off to a strong start last summer, bringing tens of thousands more passengers through Port Columbus. In turn, the airport added parking spaces and raked in millions in additional parking revenue as it reached an all-time record passenger count of more than 7.7 million for 2007.
But Skybus hit a rough patch during the winter. With a very short window between flights and a crush of flights all leaving within an hour of each other first thing in the morning, dealing with ice and snow took its toll on on-time performance. The airline had to cancel more than a dozen flights Christmas Day and the day after, when two of its seven planes went out of commission as a result of mechanical problems.
Poor performance coupled with a lack of customer service took its toll. Passenger numbers dropped in the slow months of January and February, as the airline struggled to build up its new base in Greensboro, N.C. Route cuts last month were quickly followed by the replacement of the CEO by former Chief Financial Officer Hodge, who was charged with improving performance and stemming losses.
But it was apparently too little, too late to turn the airline around.
Nice predictions people.
DeltaAVL
New Member
Re: Skybus is DONE-Z0
http://forums.jetcareers.com/general-topics/63587-yes-jc-there-truly-is-a-god-skybus-is-dead-3.html
Thread #3...
http://forums.jetcareers.com/general-topics/63587-yes-jc-there-truly-is-a-god-skybus-is-dead-3.html
Thread #3...
Blip16
Well-Known Member
this is not good for people trying to get into the industryLots of airlines going belly up = lots of available pilots. Think that'll make salaries go up or down? That whole supply and demand thing perplexes me
frog_flyer
FredFlyer
Re: Skybus is DONE-Z0
I just saw the thread. I skimmed briefly for "skybus" but in the huge thread, it's the 69th word, so I didn't see it.
That and I'm drunk.
Dough/K/Amb/Steve/EDAWGGGGGGGGGgg delete this?
I just saw the thread. I skimmed briefly for "skybus" but in the huge thread, it's the 69th word, so I didn't see it.
That and I'm drunk.
Dough/K/Amb/Steve/EDAWGGGGGGGGGgg delete this?
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