Skybus Stops

This should come as a surprise to absolutely no one: Skybus Airlines folded. Skybus promoted itself — and was credulously hyped by dim local and regional media — as an innovative new carrier that offered (a very limited number of) $10 seats on each flight. This ensured that 1. From the get-go, Skybus annoyed people who couldn’t get the widely hyped $10 fares and, 2. Its leisure-travel, gimme-a-bus-fare-in-the-skies customer base would rebel as soon as the regular fares rose, which of course they did.

Here is the Skybus announcement of its own demise.

And here's the background on Skybus, from Wikipedia.

This is the fourth shutdown of an airline in less than a week. Aloha Airlines ceased operations earlier in the week, followed by ATA and Skyway. Aloha was Hawaii-based and ATA flew a lot of Hawaii routes. Their closing is sending a shock wave through Hawaiian tourism.

And you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. With oil at current levels and not looking to drop significantly any time soon, stand by for heavy rolls in the airline industry.

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