The carrier called Skybus promises to sell at least 10 seats on every flight for just 10 dollars -- or 40 cents less than taxes customers will also have to pay.
CHICAGO: A new discount airline hits US skies in May with fares as low as 10 dollars.
The carrier called Skybus promises to sell at least 10 seats on every flight for just 10 dollars -- or 40 cents less than taxes customers will also have to pay.
"Beginning today, passengers can buy airline tickets for less than the cost of a tank of gas," Bill Diffenderffer, chief executive officer of Skybus said in a statement on Monday.
"They are not 'promotional' fares that will go away in a couple of weeks. These are the everyday low fares we promised when we began working to build Skybus."
Most of the cut-rate fares were gone by mid-morning Monday, although the airline still had fares as low as 50 dollars each way to Los Angeles or San Francisco for those willing to book more than four months in advance.
Passengers will trade a longer commute for the low fares as most of the flights will serve secondary airports such as Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which is about an hour's drive from Boston.
Skybus will offer non-stop service from Columbus, Ohio, to regional airports in the Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle/Vancouver areas. It will also offer non-stop service to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Richmond, Virginia; Kansas City, Missouri; and Greensboro/Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
"We know travelers are looking for really low fares and nonstop flights, and we believe our pricing structure will not only attract current flyers, but open up the market to many others who now find air travel simply too expensive," Diffenderffer said.
"Our strategy is to 'decomplexify' airline operations in ways that keep costs down while making flying as simple and convenient as possible for passengers."
Skybus said it is able to keep its costs down by selling ad space both inside and outside of its fleet of fuel-efficient Airbus A319 jets. It can also minimise the time its aircraft are parked at gates or taxiing on runways by using only "highly efficient airports."
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