News-Record.com

Yes - two worthless tickets as a matter of fact. It's a shame, I was really excited about having a low-cost airline so close to home.

Unfortunately I think it was just bad timing (and planning) on their part. Just hit the economy at a bad time. Thankfully we bought travel insurance through AIG on the flights, so I won't even have to deal with my CC company.

I am glad that the city got most of its money back. Of course one of my credit card companies tells me that I have to get my money back directly from Skybus who has left a note on its website to get the money back through the credit card company. I paid for a second trip on a different card. That company says maybe I can get credited after 120 days.

Lost two tickets for a fututre trip. While I do think the airline was feeling out which routes to keep (i.e. profitable) and going thru growing pains, I don't think it had over extended itself. Of the few flights I had taken with them, my impression was very favorable. The seats were nice with plenty of room, the personnel friendly, and the planes didn't make me wonder if we were going to fall out of the sky. None of the other airlines in the US can I give such praise to. The business concept appeared sound, it was just a bad economy couple with outrageous fuel prices that did them in.

Skybus was stretched to thin. The Skybus model is sound. Ryanair and U.S. carrier Allegiant Airlines is making a profit in spite of it paying the highest fuel rate. Skybus failed because of mismanagement. It expanded too quickly without giving routes time to mature. Its ground crews were either poorly trained or overworked because of lack of proper scheduling of aircraft. It failed as a result of poor management/employee relationships. In less than a year of operations, the pilots were planning to unionize (80% vote in favor of going forward with a plan to unionize with the Teamsters). Skybus failed because of scheduling new routes too quickly. Skybus failed because of its route scheduling problems. New routes were announced and then discontinued before or shortly after they were opened causing the airline to have to refund thousands of advance ticket sales. In the end, the flying public lost confidence in flying with Skybus no matter what the price. The founder objected to the hiring of Diffenderfer because of his lack of operational experience with any airline. Yet, the board hired him anyway. This is not a case of hindsight being 20/20. The founder still believes that if Skybus had been managed properly and stayed on plan he developed, the airline can be saved. We can only hope he gets the opportunity.

Skybus was stretched to thin. The Skybus model is sound. Ryanair and U.S. carrier Allegiant Airlines is making a profit in spite of it paying the highest fuel rate. Skybus failed because of mismanagement. It expanded too quickly without giving routes time to mature. Its ground crews were either poorly trained or overworked because of lack of proper scheduling of aircraft. It failed as a result of poor management/employee relationships. In less than a year of operations, the pilots were planning to unionize (80% vote in favor of going forward with a plan to unionize with the Teamsters). Skybus failed because of scheduling new routes too quickly. Skybus failed because of its route scheduling problems. New routes were announced and then discontinued before or shortly after they were opened causing the airline to have to refund thousands of advance ticket sales. In the end, the flying public lost confidence in flying with Skybus no matter what the price. The founder objected to the hiring of Diffenderfer because of his lack of operational experience with any airline. Yet, the board hired him anyway. This is not a case of hindsight being 20/20. The founder still believes that if Skybus had been managed properly and stayed on plan he developed, the airline can be saved. We can only hope he gets the opportunity.