Jaunted

Skybus Website Easter Egg: Future Flight Cuts Preview?

10/12/2007 at 1:54 PM
Tags: Skybus, Airlines (all tags)

According to the Columbus Dispatch, a bunch of schedule changes were unintentionally posted on skybus.com yesterday, showing that when the new batch of tickets go on sale next week, for March 2008 and beyond, passengers may no longer have the option to fly from Columbus to San Diego, Bellingham, Wash. (Skybus calls it Seattle), and Burbank.

Though these route cuts are far from confirmed--the official Skybus response to Jaunted was "we're not commenting on that"--but in theory the flight cuts actually make sense. Skybus only has what five planes? These five planes, until recently all flew in and out of Columbus Ohio and there were 10 $10 tickets on each flight. So of course, Skybus would make more money running a higher volume of shorter, quicker flights, especially while they are waiting for their fleet to ramp up. (The airline will have 9 planes by March 2008). Furthermore, if Skybus sticks to shorter routes--cold weather to warm weather--and keeps targeting out-of-the-way forgotten airports, they are not going to have much competition for those hardly serviced but theoretically in-demand destinations.

On the other hand, keep flying in and out of Burbank, Sand Diego et al. and not only do you have to fly longer distances you have to put up with big time competitors and airport delays.

So even though Skybus is not commenting, we say, go ahead and cut those west coast routes via Columbus for now. Bring 'em back when you are established and can offer more than "all roads go through Columbus."

Related Stories:
· Skybus Coverage [Jaunted]
· Skybus May Cut Flights [Dispatch]