Saturday, April 05, 2008

Damn Skybus!

*Shakes her fist!!!*

Last night my parents called around 9:45. They were leaving today on a vacation to Florida. But, the airline they were traveling, Skybus, folded last night at 9:30pm and all flights starting today had been canceled.

Why is this an issue for us? We were flying Skybus to Boston for the marathon. Now we have to pay TWICE as much to get to Boston. Luckily we were able to find a flight. My parents toiled all night whether to drive or fly down to Florida and finally in the middle of the night got a flight today costing nearly $800 when they had purchased two tickets on Skybus for a price of $10 per person one way. I had another friend that canceled his vacation to San Francisco next week altogether.

Skybus was unique in the airline industry in the US. They modeled themselves after Europe's RyanAir where 10 flight on every flight was $10. Skybus flew to smaller airports but airports that were positioned close to major cities. They were a no perks airline where you had to pay to check your bags, pay for drinks and snacks, and pay for priority seating. But it was an airline that brought a lot of money to Columbus and it's airport. They blame the cost of fuel and the weak economy for the demise, but personally, I hope they can figure out a way to rework their business model and go back into business. It was really revolutionary and I'm sad to see it fail.

None the less, we're getting to Boston.

5 comments:

Flo said...

Glad you found a way to Boston. Here in Hawaii we've had 2 airlines fold this week, Aloha and ATA. Both of them shut their doors rather aburptly. Let's hope Skybus is the last one.

Anonymous said...

Yep. Our flight to SF was SUPPOSED to leave in about six hours... *sigh* Oh well, we should be getting all the money back that we've spent so far. It might take a while, but we should get it back. Anyway, I guess I'll be going to work *shudder* tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

yeah, my in-laws were scrambling Thursday night to get a different flight home on Friday because of that. what a pain!

Noj said...

Management is the major reason Skybus folded in this situation, not the slowing economy or oil. Even if Skybus would have doubled their fares to cover their increase cost, that would have been able to survive longer. They still would have been one of the cheaper airlines in the industry. When their CEO and CFO left last week, everyone knew something was going down

Dave said...

I found out today one of my coworkers is stranded in Vermont thanks to Skybus.