Skybus Airlines - Fleet

Fleet

On October 26, 2006, Skybus announced a deal with the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus to buy 65 of its Airbus A319 aircraft. The order carried an estimated retail price of $3.7 billion, though the actual price Skybus would have paid had not been announced. Additionally, the aircraft were going to come with a 12-year maintenance agreement that was new for Airbus and Skybus was the launch customer for this service plan which helped them manage maintenance costs. Additionally, the aircraft would have been equipped with the latest in EFB (electronic flight bags) and HUD (heads up display) technology, as well as TCAS II terrain and traffic avoidance technology which is integrated in with an EGPWS technology box that protects from terrain collision. Skybus planned to lease aircraft of the same type until the new aircraft were to begin delivery in late 2008.

On February 14, 2007, Skybus announced they had chosen the CFM56-5B engine built by CFM International to power the 65 A319 aircraft on order from Airbus. The actual price Skybus would have paid for the engines was not disclosed, but the list price for the order is estimated at over $750 million. As of April 2008, the Skybus Airlines fleet consisted of 13 Airbus A319 aircraft (out of a total order of 63), 12 received in December 2007 and one in March 2008, two of which were leased from Virgin America. The average age of the fleet was 4.3 years.