Ultra-low-cost Skybus takes to the skies

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A new ultra-low-cost airline has officially taken flight and will test just how much travelers will give up for the sake of saving money.

Skybus, the new Columbus-based airline that offers some tickets for $10, got off the ground Tuesday with its first flight, a 9:36 a.m. departure to Burbank, Calif.

The flight headed to the Los Angeles-area airport was almost full, Skybus spokeswoman Rachel Escusa said.

The discount airline also had flights to Kansas City and Portsmouth, N.H., north of Boston, on its schedule Tuesday, she said.

Flights between Columbus and the airline's other six initial destinations — including Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Oakland, Calif.; and Bellingham, Wash., about 80 miles north of Seattle — will be phased in over the coming weeks.

The company plans to fly to 15 cities from its Columbus hub, trying to compete with Southwest, JetBlue and other no-frills airlines.

Every Skybus flight will offer at least 10 tickets for $10 each.

The airline allows travelers to upgrade by purchasing features for an additional charge.

For example, Skybus travelers can buy the “priority boarding” feature for $10 per travel segment. The airline offers first-come, first-served boarding, so the priority feature “gives you a better chance of getting the seat you want,” according to the airline's Web site.

Once onboard, passengers can buy food, beverages and other items. Soft drinks sell for $2, most of the beer and wine selection goes for $5 and a variety of snacks and meals are available — the most expensive costing $10. The company's Web site asks that travelers not bring their own food or drinks.

More than 200,000 tickets have already been sold — tickets are booked solely through the company's Web site to save costs.

Port Columbus International Airport is already served by low-cost carriers JetBlue and Southwest, yet the Skybus business plan convinced local investors such as Nationwide Mutual Capital to come onboard. Skybus also received an incentive package valued at $57 million from city, county and state officials.

"Investors like that Skybus has done what they said they would do: create an extremely efficient operating model and a great value position for travelers," said Josh Connor, a managing director at Morgan Stanley.

Other analysts are skeptical, especially with Skybus planning to offer flights to mostly secondary airports — near Boston; Los Angeles; Seattle; Greensboro, N.C.; Kansas City, Mo.; Richmond, Va.; and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Skybus will fly to Portsmouth International Airport in New Hampshire, which is 44 miles from Boston. The airline's Web site offers directions between Portsmouth and Boston, as well as information about car rentals.

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"The biggest pitfall for them is, will U.S. customers accept this ultra-low cost to travel to remote airports?" said David Cahill, a visiting assistant professor at Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business. "If passengers are willing to do that, I think it's going to be an amazing business concept."

Mike Boyd, an aviation consultant in Colorado, said there's not enough public transit from remote airports to support new business. He also said it isn't realistic for Skybus to attract a groundswell of passengers from outside Columbus.

"You don't find anybody in the business who will say that (this plan) makes sense," Boyd said. "And there just aren't that many gaps anymore out there for low-fare service."

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Skybus officials said they see an opportunity to draw would-be passengers from Cleveland, Cincinnati and as far as Fort Wayne, Ind., and Charleston, W.Va.

Skybus CEO Bill Diffenderffer said he's pleased with the company's progress so far. All of the company's routes are showing respectable bookings, though flights to Richmond and Kansas City are less popular than others.

"Unless they were doing pitifully slow, we wouldn't think about investing in a route for just a couple of months and then pulling out," Diffenderffer said.

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