Skybus

Well, if you live in Columbus (Ohio), you might be interested, because they’re based right in your backyard.

Skybus seems to have been in the works for quite some time, but they haven’t been able to get things up and running yet. They did, however, just release the newest version of their website, so maybe they’re getting closer. Unfortunately, the website is pretty much an empty shell for now, so there’s not much we can learn from it.

The basic idea as I understand it is to bring the Ryanair model to the US. Yeah, that means fares as low as a penny but you’ll pay for everything else (drinks, seat assignments, etc) a la carte. Does that sound familiar? Well, if you read my post on Allegiant Air, it probably does, because that’s what they seem to be angling toward as well.

We do know that they’re based in Columbus, and they plan to start their initial flights from there in the spring. They’re going to be looking for smaller, cheaper airports to fly from as well, but that seems to be the most we know right now.

The idea of basing an airline in Columbus doesn’t seem too swift to me, because it’s never been able to sustain a really large airline operation. If the plan is to just start with some jobs in Columbus but put operational bases elsewhere, then it has a fighting chance. I guess we’ll have to see where this goes as the plan develops.