Skybus Airlines - History

History

Taking advantage of America West Airlines pulling down its Columbus, Ohio, hub, its founder, John Weikle, started raising capital to start the airline in that city. Two years later, the Skybus board hired Bill Diffenderffer as its CEO. Diffenderffer's prior airline experience was as in-house counsel for Eastern Airlines and CEO of Continental Airlines System One Reservations. At the time Skybus began operations it was the most heavily capitalized (funded) airline in US history. Its founder, John Weikle, resigned one day after Skybus began its first passenger flights.

On April 24, 2007, Skybus Airlines announced their initial set of eight destinations, all of which originated from their hub at Port Columbus International Airport in Columbus. At first, Skybus operated a strict point-to-point service, not booking flights between destination cities that were not Columbus, but the company later announced it would begin flying direct flights from its Portsmouth, NH, destination to two locations in Florida. In addition, prices of tickets and details on extra fees were announced the same day.

On May 22, 2007, Skybus Airlines began service to and from Port Columbus International Airport and its initial eight destinations. The airline also announced its intention to rapidly expand. The expansion plans were not envisioned in the original business plan, and, in some instances, it expanded to cities that management did not choose on the basis of computer models used with its initial destination cities (Chattanooga, TN, for example). As part of its business model, Skybus favored smaller, cheaper airports near major markets. To serve Boston, for example, Skybus chose Portsmouth (New Hampshire) International Airport.

Skybus marketed itself as an ultra-low-cost carrier, selling ten seats on each flight for $10. The low fares came with a reduction of frills. There were charges for virtually everything else (see Skybus business model), including checked baggage charges, which were later implemented by other carriers such as Delta, Northwest and United.

On July 24, 2007, the U.S. Department of Transportation granted Skybus the right to fly international flights to Cancún, Mexico and Nassau, Bahamas.

Skybus announced on September 25, 2007, that it would begin daily service from Portsmouth to St. Augustine, as well as Fort Myers, served by the Charlotte County Airport in Punta Gorda in December 2007.

As of October 25, 2007, all press releases and references to the international service were removed from the Skybus website.

The airline made news during the Christmas 2007 holiday travel season, when it encountered problems with two of its seven planes, resulting in the cancellation of about 25% of its scheduled service over a two-day period. As a result of not having de-icing contracts in place in advance of winter 2007–08, Skybus was forced to take significant delays and incurred thousands of dollars in additional de-icing costs. On March 24, 2008, Skybus announced that chief executive Bill Diffenderffer had resigned to return to his previous occupation as an author.

As of November 2008, Skybus's former website, www.skybus.com, was no longer active.