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Saturday's lead editorial.

Skybus failed to survive turbulent times in the airline industry. But its short presence here proved PTI can successfully compete in the passenger business.

Skybus Airlines' sudden tailspin into bankruptcy may seem to validate some skeptics who'd questioned from day one its folksy, thrift-store approach to the friendly skies.

Gaudy orange planes and 10 seats for 10 bucks on every trip and flight attendants hawking everything from sodas to T-shirts? Were these guys serious?

Yes, and so were Triad leaders, who were right to bet on Skybus' success and to hope they'd hitch a ride on the upstart discount carrier from the ground floor up.

Skybus had a solid, if nontraditional, business model, and it filled a critical need at PTI for a discount airline that could help drive down Triad fares. Ironically, it was working. Passenger traffic at PTI in February was 41 percent higher than it was last year.

Skybus also proved the ability of PTI to hold its own in the passenger business, even with bigger airports in Charlotte and Raleigh nibbling at its heels.

That's one of the factors that likely helped PTI Airport Authority Chairman Henry Isaacson not only to persuade the only other discount carrier at PTI, Allegiant Air, to remain, but to add service in the Triad, after originally announcing its intentions to leave. "Even before Skybus (folded) I talked to Allegiant about staying," Isaacson said Friday. "In a quiet way, they're a very successful airline."

That still leaves a void for the airport to fill, but it's a hopeful step forward. Isaacson says he will continue to shop for a new discount carrier until he finds one. It won't be easy. By the end of last week alone, Skybus, ATA Airlines and Aloha Airlines announced shutdowns and bankruptcy filings. This week, another carrier, Frontier Airlines, announced it was filing for bankruptcy but will continue to operate. The entire industry is in turmoil, primarily because of the rising cost of jet fuel.

"All the airlines, including Southwest, are feeling the pinch," Isaacson said. "But we're gonna keep trying."

Meanwhile, taking into account a local incentives package that could have totaled $57 million (had Skybus met all the benchmarks), the Triad may have lost between $40,000 and $130,000 in the deal.

In the volatile, high-stakes game of the passenger airline business, it was a gamble well worth taking.

Where Skybus did not distinguish itself was in how it treated some customers, some of whom were suddenly stranded and who in some cases received little or no assistance from rattled Skybus employees. "In retrospect, it would have been a lot easier for everyone involved if we'd had enough notice," Isaacson said.

That was no way to run an airline, even one whose brief lifetime was coming to an end.
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