BY KEITH BENMAN, Times of Northwest Indiana
kbenman@nwitimes.com
GARY | Officials of Gary-bound Skybus Airlines are quick to compare their company to Ryanair, Europe's fastest-growing carrier, touted as the "next generation" of budget airline.
But its no-frills, take-it-or-leave-it attitude also has earned Ryanair the distinction of being Europe's most-complained-about airline.
On March 13, Chicagoland will be introduced to the "next generation" in ultra-low-fare flying, when Skybus flight 362 pulls up to the terminal at Gary/Chicago International Airport at 9:40 a.m.
Skybus CEO Bill Diffenderffer admits the airline is not for everyone.
Passengers buy tickets point-to-point. They make their own connections. No food can be brought on board. A checked bag will cost $5. And don't call with complaints, there's no call center. It's an all-online airline.
Diffenderffer says look at the fares, look at the destinations, then make your choice.
"The best part of a Skybus flight is you pay half of what you'd pay with other people on a nonstop flight," Diffenderffer said in a recent interview with The Times (for full interview, see bizNews on page C1).
The first 10 tickets on every Skybus flight go for $10. With thousands of seats already booked for March flights between Gary and Greensboro, N.C., seats on almost all flights are still priced at $35 and $55. March flights to 10 other destinations from Greensboro are similarly priced.
Gary Airport Director Chris Curry said the situation with Skybus is fundamentally different than with previous airlines that came and went, such as Southeast Airlines and SkyValue.
"It's not a matter of Gary trying to sell Skybus on the idea we can fill planes up," Curry said. "It's a matter of Skybus needing Chicago as a destination."
The idea that price trumps all has sold hundreds of millions of tickets for Ryanair in Europe. But will it sell enough tickets to keep Skybus flying in the United States?
"Our readers love talking about it," said Paul Brady, editor of Jaunted, an online pop-culture travel guide. Jaunted recently named Skybus its "Best Newcomer of the Year" in the industry.
From comments posted at the Jaunted site, Brady said it appears Skybus, which started flying May 22 from Columbus, Ohio, has some dedicated fans. Others are bailing out.
Typical of fans were the two golfing buddies who went to Greensboro for $103 -- that's for two round-trip fares -- for an afternoon of golf. Among those dissing the airline was the Jaunted poster who said he was confused because Skybus says it flies to Toronto, his hometown. But it really goes to Niagara, N.Y., which is 80 miles away in the United States.
Mainstream airline experts continue to question, and in some cases condemn, the Skybus business model.
"I have to question the sanity of any airline where if you have a problem you can't call them," said Michael Boyd, president of The Boyd Group Inc., an aviation consulting firm.
Boyd points out that the airline's costs per passenger mile barely beat out Southwest Airlines, although its fares are far south of Southwest's. That makes Boyd question how the airline will make money.
Ryanair itself went through financial ups and downs since its founding in 1985. In the 1990s, it followed the Southwest model.
But Ryanair's explosive growth came after 2000, when it went to an all-online reservations center. In 2006, it carried 42.5 million passengers. That is six times the 7 million carried six years before.
That growth has had a cost. A survey by TripAdvisor Web site in 2006 found Ryanair to be "the world's most disliked airline."
No matter, in 2007 the airline carried 49 million passengers, making it the third largest in Europe.