SKYBUS lost 16 plus Million last quarter and they only have 75 million in cash. If their losses double next quarter that wipes out half of the CASH.
SKYBUS
- Thread starter gizmo_sc
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Most likely, not long. With how unpredictable our economy is now, i'll say six months to one year - but who knows really. It is hard to start a business, and the average business loses money for the first four years of operation... What's really important though is, their model is way way different than what the US knows as a low cost carrier... AND they have real investors behind them, so if they beat expectations (and i'd be willing to bet that their "expectations" don't have them showing profitable numbers anyway - they will probably get more funding...
They have a really interesting concept... They don't even offer a customer service phone number. They pay very low wages and I wonder how they will manage growth? They sell merchandise on board like watches, and clothing. Very different...
I have flown them, twice. The only reason I flew them twice is because I planned both trips at the same time. I don't think I will be flying them again.
I expect some sort of professionalism when I fly the airlines. I know times have changed, but at least I would like to THINK I am not buying passage from one city to another on a Greyhound bus. Everything they did pretty much annoyed me. Lining Passengers up like cattle before you board, charging to check bags, charging for priority boarding, charging for every little thing on the airplane and requesting tips. Even their "uniform" (T-shirts around for EVERYBODY) bugged me. I personally felt like I was at one of those festivals where everywhere I went I was being heckled to play some stupid game or buy cotton candy. They even left the cabin lights on for the whole two hour night flight so any chance of me getting a little shut eye was thwarted by their attempt to sell me chocolate and novelty t-shirts. Might not sound like a big deal, but when wheels down is scheduled at 01:00 you will change your mind.
Last but not least, descending from the front and back of the aircraft in Columbus in the midst of winter on metal roll away stairs instead of a jet way does NOT sound like a safe idea.
I don't see them lasting though 2008, but I have been wrong.
I expect some sort of professionalism when I fly the airlines. I know times have changed, but at least I would like to THINK I am not buying passage from one city to another on a Greyhound bus. Everything they did pretty much annoyed me. Lining Passengers up like cattle before you board, charging to check bags, charging for priority boarding, charging for every little thing on the airplane and requesting tips. Even their "uniform" (T-shirts around for EVERYBODY) bugged me. I personally felt like I was at one of those festivals where everywhere I went I was being heckled to play some stupid game or buy cotton candy. They even left the cabin lights on for the whole two hour night flight so any chance of me getting a little shut eye was thwarted by their attempt to sell me chocolate and novelty t-shirts. Might not sound like a big deal, but when wheels down is scheduled at 01:00 you will change your mind.
Last but not least, descending from the front and back of the aircraft in Columbus in the midst of winter on metal roll away stairs instead of a jet way does NOT sound like a safe idea.
I don't see them lasting though 2008, but I have been wrong.
I met Bill Diffenderfer at last years American Association of Airport Executives conference in D.C.
He was an excellent public speaker, but he struck me as more of the investment banker type with very little knowledge or background of the Aviation/Airline industry. I think he would have made an excellent P.R. spokesman, but it was probably a smart idea to have him replaced.
eolesen
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- Jul 23, 2003
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The CEO wasn't replaced -- he quit to go back to being an author... or so he says. More likely, he saw the end was near, and decided to cash out his chips while he could...
Available cash is a misgnomer... Skybus is privately funded, and there are normally fools willing to part with money and refund a losing venture like theirs.
Then again, with all the margin calls and uncertainty in the banking sector, perhaps sane minds will prevail and people will realize that Skybus is really a crappy business model...
Available cash is a misgnomer... Skybus is privately funded, and there are normally fools willing to part with money and refund a losing venture like theirs.
Then again, with all the margin calls and uncertainty in the banking sector, perhaps sane minds will prevail and people will realize that Skybus is really a crappy business model...
How is that much different from most of current US "legacy" carriers (aside from requesting tips)?
SegmentKing
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Kev3188
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CynicalResAgent
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If I were the person in charge of Skybus, I'd be talking to WN about how I quickly I could shift my operations over to be their international carrier to replace TZ. WN spent a lot of money to upgrade their website and res system to hanle international reservations and Skybus could easily work out some deal to fly to the carribean, Mexico and Canada. I don't doubt WN could manage their own international ops, just that in todays enviroment it would be a larger burden than they want right now.... Just that they plan on quick turnarounds to keep the planes flying a lot of revenue and on international flights it's harder to do.
Skybus contracts out everything, they have no res centers, basically they consist of HQ and their flight personell so I'd guess that they should be able to recalibrate their business model to serve in that capacity. They could sell tickets on themselves thru their website and WN could handle any calls they get for the codeshare flights and could handle their ground ops/counter work.
They could redeploy to BWI to fly to some caribbean destinations for people conneting from the northeast and possibly MCO or LAX to Mexico and MDW would be a good gateway to Canada (or if they want to stay in CMH that would also work to fly to YYZ,YOW or YUL and pick up people from WN)
In their favor they do have (I believe) a good number of orders and options with airbus. I thought they planned to fly up to 50-75 Airbus.
I think if they keep up this point to point, as they are doing right now, they will eventually fail. If the economy were even just a bit better (oil in the $70 range they might be able to make it work) Then again they based their plan off of the Ryan Air-Easy Jet approach which assumes your going to pick up some revenue from these secondary cities and airports but I just don't believe the money is out there like it is in Europe.
Skybus contracts out everything, they have no res centers, basically they consist of HQ and their flight personell so I'd guess that they should be able to recalibrate their business model to serve in that capacity. They could sell tickets on themselves thru their website and WN could handle any calls they get for the codeshare flights and could handle their ground ops/counter work.
They could redeploy to BWI to fly to some caribbean destinations for people conneting from the northeast and possibly MCO or LAX to Mexico and MDW would be a good gateway to Canada (or if they want to stay in CMH that would also work to fly to YYZ,YOW or YUL and pick up people from WN)
In their favor they do have (I believe) a good number of orders and options with airbus. I thought they planned to fly up to 50-75 Airbus.
I think if they keep up this point to point, as they are doing right now, they will eventually fail. If the economy were even just a bit better (oil in the $70 range they might be able to make it work) Then again they based their plan off of the Ryan Air-Easy Jet approach which assumes your going to pick up some revenue from these secondary cities and airports but I just don't believe the money is out there like it is in Europe.
Scheduled sevice to Mexico still requires obtaining route authority. There is no U.S. Mexico Open Skies yet.
CynicalResAgent
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