Flying the Ultra No-Frills Airline

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

THE MIDDLE SEAT
By SCOTT MCCARTNEY

Flying the Ultra No-Frills Airline
Skybus Passengers Pay to Check Bags; Some Seats for $10
November 13, 2007; Page D4

Passengers departing on Skybus Airlines from Columbus, Ohio, walk out of a brand new terminal and traipse across the tarmac to board their planes. In some cities, travelers fetch their own luggage off luggage carts. The airline has no telephone number that customers can call. With fares starting at $10 one-way, do you expect more? Skybus Airlines Inc., now six months old, brings a new level of bare-bones service -- and very affordable prices -- to the U.S. skies. The carrier also raises the question of just how cheap U.S. travelers will go to travel. So far, many seem to be willing to go very cheap. At a time when bus companies and Amtrak struggle to attract customers, and many travelers still gripe about the loss of in-flight meals and the addition of so many airline fees, Skybus filled more than 80% of its seats all summer.

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To strip as many costs out as it can, Skybus mimics many of the cheapskate travel tactics that Ryanair Holdings PLC pioneered in Europe. Dublin-based Ryanair is famous for its frugality, down to ordering planes without window shades to save money and charging customers to check-in at the airport (online check-in is free). Complaints are often numerous, and yet Ryanair has grown rapidly, doubling its passenger count in the past four years to about 50 million people this year. Like Ryanair, which sometimes gives away tickets (customers pay the taxes and fees), Skybus offers eye-catching promotions. Every Skybus flight has 10 seats for sale for $10 each, and captains often ask customers to raise their hands if they got the $10 seats to show other customers the promotion is real. The carrier's average one-way ticket is less than $100.

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Once hooked on cheap fares, Skybus travelers do often end up paying more. If they want priority boarding, it's $10 per flight. Check a bag? That costs $5 for each of the first two bags under 50 pounds, then $50 for the third bag. About 80% of passengers end up paying to check bags. And like Ryanair, Skybus looks at passengers as captive shoppers sitting on credit cards, willing to buy because they are on vacation, or don't have time to go to the mall.

Skybus flight attendants, often hired from retail stores and restaurants for their sales skills, hawk everything from coffee and pillows to perfume, watches and jewelry. Travelers aren't allowed to carry food on board -- that might hurt sandwich sales. (Employees announce the policy, but don't check bags for edible contraband.) Passengers receive a glossy catalog of items for sale, and flight attendants, who get a 10% commission, push a cart down the aisle at least twice during a flight. Along with $5 cinnamon rolls and $10 grilled Caesar lunches, Skybus offers items such as $98 cubic zirconium tennis bracelets, $44 bottles of Vera Wang Princess perfume and $86 Tommy Hilfiger men's watches. The catalog says the watch sells for $95 in stores, and indeed, an Internet search finds it priced at $95 or higher. And Skybus collects no sales tax in the air -- a point flight attendants push hard, along with sales tactics like: "We only have two of these on board, and I've already sold the first in the back."

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Mr. Diffenderffer thinks many in the airline industry don't understand Skybus's model. The carrier has 65 Airbus A319 jets on order and nine more lined up to lease. While that would seem like overload for a city the size of Columbus, he plans to copy Ryanair's model of basing a dozen or so jets in various cities around the country, just as Ryanair does all over Europe. Skybus recently announced that Greensboro, N.C., will be its next base, hoping to draw customers from as far as Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte. Skybus believes U.S. consumers are willing to drive a long way to distant airports just to get cheap fares -- as far as 200 miles to save $200, Mr. Diffenderffer figures. To keep costs low, Skybus flies to remote fields like Stewart Airport in Newburgh, N.Y., about 60 miles north of Manhattan, and Pease International Airport in Portsmouth, N.H., an hour from Boston. In Florida, it has shunned several traditional airports and opted for fields not served by any airline, like St. Augustine, south of Jacksonville, and Punta Gorda, near Fort Myers.

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URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119492449507790985.html

[DCKit]

1. Aww, Hell. I though this was going to be a joke about Mitt Romney's new business venture. nt