Skybus Gary's ticket to U.S.

BY KEITH BENMAN, Times of Northwest Indiana
kbenman@nwitimes.com

In two months flights will start up from Gary/Chicago International Airport to Greensboro, N.C. and ten other U.S. cities.

Skybus Airlines and airport officials stressed that fact on Wednesday, as they touted the connections "savvy travelers" can make from Greensboro to places like Boston, Los Angeles and New Orleans.

"We don't come in just for the short haul," said Skybus Vice President of Operations Bud Sittig, standing at a podium at the airport administration building Wednesday morning. "We don't just stick our toe in the water. We're coming to stay."

Airport and local officials hope the ultra-discount airline sticks to those words, just eight month's removed from the SkyValue debacle. SkyValue ceased all flights after just five month's of flying. The airport made a last-ditch effort to save the airline by extending a $325,000 loan that has yet to be paid back.

The airport has been without an airline since then, as it was when Hooters Airways ended all flights a year before. Two other airlines, Southeast and PanAm, also had brief tenures at the airport.

"We look forward to building a long-lasting relationship with Skybus," said Airport Director Chris Curry.

Skybus, based in Columbus, Ohio, has made a name for itself by selling the first 10 seats on every plane for $10. It currently flies seven Airbus A319s and will have 11 flying by the time Gary flights start up, Sittig said.

The airport authority is only offering the airline modest incentives of $200,000 per year in marketing support and a waiver on landing fees, which amount to about $60 per plane, Curry said.

That compares to multimillion revenue guarantees offered by other regional airports to attract airlines.

Tickets for weekend flights from Gary to Greensboro's Piedmont Triad International were apparently selling briskly on Wednesday after going on sale at 5 a.m. The first $10 seats had sold out and so had the $35 seats on some planes by late afternoon.

Skybus does not sell tickets for connecting flights in a package. Instead, customers have to reserve each ticket separately.

The advent of Skybus flights on March 13 will also bring several changes to the airport.

Passengers will not belly up to ticket counters to get tickets or boarding passes. Instead, they will have already reserved tickets online and will grab boarding passes at self-serve kiosks in the terminal.

"The best feature of this airport is a customer coming across that parking lot, going through the terminal, through security and a jet coming in in 25 minutes," Sittig said.

Skybus began flights in May and now has planes flying to 19 destinations, Sittig said.