Watch your six, Southwest. There’s another discount airline on the market. It’s called Skybus, and it will offer $10 one-way tickets until December 15th. (Of course, that’s only for at least ten seats per flight.)
Skybus CEO Bill Diffenderffer announced that “passengers can buy airline tickets for less than the cost of a tank of gas,” and a company spokesman added that some tickets could reach $330. Cool. That’s still much better than the last-minute tickets I’ve purchased from US Airways for over $1200.
Skybus plans to lower their costs by slapping advertisements on every available surface of their planes. (Sound familiar?) Also, the company will only take reservations via the Internet, so they will not incur the costs of a call center. Oh, and expect to pay a fee to check in your bags.
Unfortunately, the carrier will fly from only five airports when they begin operations on May 22nd:
- Columbus, OH
- Burbank, CA
- Portsmouth, NH
- Richmond, VA
- Kansas City, MO
So, don’t plan on flying out to Disney World with that ten dollar bill. You could probably go visit one of your great aunts, though. I’m sure she’d like that. Don’t worry about missing out on great fares if you’re not in those markets because Skybus will add three more airports by the end of May and another airport in June.