Sky Bus makes new (focus city) at kgso (Greensboro, NC)

On October 22 Skybus announced plans to make a new focus city and maintence base at Piedmont triad international airport (kgso) ask.skybus.com/about/skybus/skyb … leaseID=31

Love this:

All Skybus flights operate on full-size Airbus A319 jets.

Guess some other airlines are using less-than-full size A319s.

Don’t be fooled into flying on one of those half-size Gulfstream A319 pistons!

i guess they’re just trying to make them sound better than other airlines…the flights are cheap but u have to pay a lot for everything else lol

So I paid $305.00 for 7 people to fly to Biloxi/Gulf Port (going to Gulf Shores, 1:15 away). That’s cheaper than driving. At that price I could buy the whole plane pop, food, pillows, and blankets. All for less then 1 ticket on US Airways. I really don’t mind buying everything else when I’m getting $10.00 fairs. And yes, I’ve gotten and flown the $10.00 fairs 3 different times now.

…the flights are cheap but u have to pay a lot for everything else lol

They along with other low cost carries have a lot of hidden costs but most leisure travelers can around some or most of them (carrying on).

Reading their “Rules of Flying” I am amazed at how economically they are trying to run this airline. Heres one of their rules:

Dont call us.
We dont have a phone number. Seriously. Wed love to chat, but those phone banks are expensive. And a good website like www.skybus.com is even more convenient.

what?!

They squeeze 150 seats into an A319?
Frontier only puts 132 seats in theirs.
jetBlue has 150 seats in their A320s.

I guess your comfort is more expensive too. :confused:

That’s tight…and not in a good way.

Usairways is getting cheaper to fly nowadays i had a round trip for 2 from Clt-atl for less than $300

It may be cheaper but it’s still too high. Here on the west coast, where Southwest is a major player, you can get 2 roundtrips between the SJC/OAK/SFO and LAX/BUR/ONT/SNA/SAN for about $200 plus extortion. If I’m not mistaken, the distance between the bay area and southern California is longer than between CLT and ATL>

then what about clt-fra for around $250 one way(on a certain day of the week)

Low fares like that are often offered between the east coast and Europe. Actually getting those tickets is a different story.

Bottom line: air fares today make no sense whatsoever.

I saw JetBlue was pulling out of Columbus and Nashville. Is this because of Skybus? That should make Norwegianguy happy.

the FAA is cracking down on delays at JFK, so I think they had to reduce flights and decided to drop these two routes. Perhaps choosing Columbus had to do with Skybus.

from aero news
*

JetBlue, JFKs largest domestic carrier, will move dozens of flights out of peak hours by next year, cancel service to Nashville and Columbus, and shift several flights from JFK to Westchester County Airport.

“We look at it as self-help,” says a JetBlue spokesman. “JFK is so important to us; we need to take the lead here.”

Nah the reason for the pullout is they were never able to raise their prices to make any profit. Supposedly they were 80% full, but at $100 a pop to JFK there was no real profit. American and Delta had the ability to drop their prices long term and squeeze JetBlue out. I never flew them, but my brother does 3x a week to JFK out of CMH. Needless to say he is bummed as he liked the on-board Directv. Skybus had nothing to do with it as their flight to “boston” is not very full of the coveted business travelers. Presently skybus is looking to fly to “NYC” as in Trenton. Again not gonna see the business traveler to nyc there.

dave

the FAA is cracking down on delays at JFK, so I think they had to reduce flights and decided to drop these two routes.

Jet Blue has all those expansion plans ( new terminal ). Are they going to cut many flight? What about the airspace redesign, when will that go into effect and how will it affect JFK-EWR-LGA-PHL, etc.

Skybus announced today service between CMH and “NYC” umm Stewart Intl. Close enough for them. I just looked. Hundreds of $10 tix left.

Dave

Yes. SWF is 70 miles from Manhattan and you pass 2 Toll booths.

$30.00 Dollar Ticket
$30.00 dollars for Bags

That is $60 bucks round-trip.
Now add the $100.00 dollar cab/limo fare Each way.
You are at $260.00
I know you can to GSO-LGA (if you by 21 days in adv) for about 120 a person.

I don’t think Skybus will make it personally. You can make money selling tickets that cheap. Even if they do have other small fee’s within the airline.
Well, I guess they’re pilots flying for free helps too.

Just my 2 Cents worth

i hope they survive gso is in need of something like Skybus

Yes. SWF is 70 miles from Manhattan and you pass 2 Toll booths.

$30.00 Dollar Ticket
$30.00 dollars for Bags

That is $60 bucks round-trip.
Now add the $100.00 dollar cab/limo fare Each way.
You are at $260.00
I know you can to GSO-LGA (if you by 21 days in adv) for about 120 a person.

I don’t think Skybus will make it personally. You can make money selling tickets that cheap. Even if they do have other small fee’s within the airline.
Well, I guess they’re pilots flying for free helps too.

Just my 2 Cents worth

Quiet…Skybus wouldn’t want you giving that out. They might just pull NY before its even started. :unamused:

Just another one of their hidden fees :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry:

From The Columbus Dispatch March 11/08

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The pilots for Skybus Airlines are attempting to unionize, with more than 80 percent favoring a vote by next month to join the Teamsters.

The move comes as all airlines are struggling with soaring fuel prices, and it could pose another threat to the airline’s goal of keeping its costs far below industry standards. Labor and fuel are by far the largest expenses for an airline.

“If the Teamsters are certified, the way this airline is run is going to change,” said aviation consultant Michael Boyd of Colorado-based Boyd Group, who has been a critic of the Skybus business model. "The next group will be the flight attendants. I think the employees are saying, ‘We just can’t work at these rates.’ "

Skybus, which was notified late last week of the action, said in a statement that the company is surprised to be facing a “union organizing effort when the airline industry is dealing with a slowing economy and oil prices” that are nearly $108 a barrel.

“We believe that a majority of our pilots will understand that we are better served focusing on building a start-up airline in a very competitive environment than we are going down a path that for other airlines has led to contentious labor-management issues,” the statement said.

The starting salary for a Skybus captain is $65,000, while a less-senior first officer makes $30,000 to start. Pilots say those amounts are as much as 50 percent below industry standards, and Skybus pilots say the airline is not offering second-year pay increases. Still, Skybus has been able to attract experienced pilots with stock options and the opportunity to be home every night, because all planes return to either Columbus or the second base of Greensboro, N.C.

Pilots at most U.S. commercial airlines are unionized through either the Air Line Pilots Association or the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. JetBlue is a notable exception, and Southwest pilots have an in-house union. Ireland’s Ryanair, on which Skybus is largely based, has had a contentious history of refusing to negotiate with its pilots union.

Victoria Gray, a spokeswoman for the airline division of the Teamsters, confirmed that the union has collected more than the required number of cards from Skybus pilots to proceed. The Teamsters asks for 65 percent of eligible employees to “submit cards” indicating they want to join the union; the organization then notifies the National Mediation Board of the vote and asks the airline for its employee list.

The mediation board requires a simple majority for passage of a vote to join a union. Gray said that by this timeline, she would expect Skybus pilots to join the Teamsters Local 747 out of Houston by April.

Skybus has about 140 pilots, nearly 120 of whom are eligible to vote. In a phone interview yesterday, a Skybus pilot speaking on condition of anonymity said he was one of the more than 100 pilots who submitted cards favoring union membership.

The pilot said he still thinks the basic Skybus model is a sound one, and that the company can succeed. But he said pilots have become angered by having their work rules changed via e-mail with no direct communication and by being told that pay raises would come only in the form of profit sharing after the airline has a full year of profitability.

In its first quarter of flying, last July through September, Skybus had a loss of $16 million, according to documents filed with the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Figures for fourth quarter 2007 are not expected to be released until May.

Extreme penny-pinching also has gotten on the pilots’ nerves. In the pilots’ lounge, “They took away the bottled water recently because they said it cost too much,” the pilot said.

“They got us these cheap plastic containers to fill up and take on the plane, but they leaked. They admitted they made a mistake and gave us bottled water again. But to save the delivery cost, they have pilots on their off-hours go to Costco and pick up cases of water and deliver them to the airport.”