Low fares fuel Skybus flights from Gary

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

GARY | Kevin and Samantha Ortiz and their three children ages 5 months to 5 years were in the very last row of seats on Skybus flight 363 on Thursday.

(Watch the video of Skybus taking off from Gary/Chicago International Airport.)

"We drive everywhere," said Samantha Ortiz as she held five-month-old Elena across her chest. "This is the first time we've flown together anywhere as a family."

The couple, who had driven almost two hours from South Haven, Mich., to Gary/Chicago International Airport, are considered the target market for ultra-low fare Skybus.

Since announcing they would land at Gary three months ago, Skybus execs have stressed their low fares will attract people who have never flown before - and that those people will travel to get to those fares.

In the Ortizes' case, the whole family was flying round trip to Greensboro, N.C., to visit Kevin's family on four tickets for a total of $348.

Other passengers from Chicago and its north and south suburbs reported saving $100 to $200 on round-trip fares over flights out of Midway and O'Hare.

Skybus will need to continue to attract customers like those it did Friday if it is to survive soaring fuel prices. Three months ago, Skybus Vice President Bud Sittig said the airline could survive oil prices up to $110 per barrel.

They reached that level this week. But that couldn't dampen Sittig's enthusiasm on Thursday, as he asked crowded flight 363 passengers how many had $10 fares. Several hands went up.

"We hope this is just the beginning of a great relationship with Northwest Indiana, Chicagoland, and with anyone who wants to take Skybus," Sittig said, just before the airliner taxied out onto the Gary runway at 10 a.m.

Once up, flight attendants got right to selling breakfast sandwiches at $8 a pop and bagels and cream cheese at $3. They also marketed items from the Skybus on-board shopping mall.

Always smiling, they explained that's how the airline keeps fares so low.

The flight pulled into Piedmont Triad Airport in Greensboro as scheduled at 12:39 p.m. Eastern time. There, passengers disembarked on jet stairs to the tarmac of the 25-gate airport and then climbed multi-level ramps back up to the terminal concourse.

A host of Gary airport and local officials were anxious to dispel the ghosts of airlines past that have flown from Gary for varying lengths of time.

"Those airlines didn't fail because of Gary," said the Rev. Marion Johnson Jr., president of the Gary/Chicago Airport Authority. "They failed because of bad business decisions they made."

The officials heard from Piemont Triad Airport Director Ted Johnson, who told them Skybus has increased business at the airport by 20 percent. The airport hosts seven other airlines, including United and Delta.

They were also told about the airport's $300 million expansion to pave the way for a new mid-Atlantic shipping hub for Fed Ex. The Gary airport hopes to also land a significant cargo operation.