Posted on 09/16/2007 4:40:42 PM PDT by buccaneer81
Taking to the skies on a tight schedule Quick turnarounds, point-to-point flights help Skybus get the most mileage out of its fleet Sunday, September 16, 2007 3:58 AM By Marla Matzer Rose THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
It's not hard for the boss of the fifth-largest and fastest-growing airline at Port Columbus to count the number of planes in his fleet.
He can do it on one hand.
Five planes are all it takes for Skybus Airlines to offer 14 departures to 11 cities from Port Columbus a day, a schedule that's attracting more than 80,000 passengers a month.
While the fact might be hard to believe, airline officials say operating lean is a way to keep costs to a minimum.
"Airplanes don't make money sitting on the ground," said Bill Diffenderffer, Skybus' CEO. "The only way an airplane makes money is when it's in the air, flying in a straight line to its destination."
Skybus serves most cities with once-daily flights. However, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Burbank, Calif. (serving Los Angeles), and Portsmouth, N.H., (serving Boston) have two flights per day. That brings the number of daily one-way trips to 28.
As Skybus adds destinations in the coming weeks, it plans to continue flying with as few planes as possible.
But by the time it takes delivery of the 65 Airbus A319 jets it has on order over the next several years, the airline plans to schedule many more flights from several "focus cities" across the U.S. These differ from hubs, because Skybus operates point-to-point rather than offering connecting flights as most carriers do.
Toney Quillen, vice president of maintenance and engineering for Skybus, said the airline's planes get more hours of use per day -- an average of 13.2 -- than those of virtually any other airline in the world. Al Arabia airlines squeezes out an hour more per day, but the worldwide average use of an A319, which makes up all of Skybus' fleet, is just less than nine hours.
In the United States, Skybus beats low-cost competitors such as Frontier (12.3 hours per day, according to the most recent data) and Spirit (10.6 hours). United and America West also get above-average use from their A319s, with each coming in at 11.9 hours per day. These figures exclude time not spent flying, and any scheduled flight time not completed because of cancellations.
"High utilization of their resources is a prerequisite for a low-cost carrier," said Doug Abbey, an industry consultant at the Washington-based Velocity Group, an aviation consulting company. "They're all trying to get the best productivity from their aircraft and employees, and keep load factors high."
For reasons including the age of the fleet, more time spent on the ground and the use of a hub-and-spoke system, traditional carriers often do not get as much use out of their planes. Abbey said that JetBlue was the first U.S. airline to start out using new jets; before that, startups often cobbled together fleets from older planes.
Andrew Vasey, whose Vasey Aviation Group has done consulting work for Skybus, said the airline is able to operate the way it does at this point because it flies new airplanes and operates point-to-point -- with no connecting flights -- from uncongested airports.
"They don't have to schedule their planes to connect at a hub, which also means they can have fast turns," said Vasey, referring to the scant 25 minutes Skybus allows between landing and the next takeoff. "Being out of congested areas contributes to getting more time in the air, too."
There are potential tradeoffs for operating with so few planes. While the major airlines are increasingly criticized for scheduling too many flights at the most popular times, resulting in increased congestion and delays, Skybus goes the opposite direction by scheduling some flights at odd hours to wring the most use out of its planes.
This means several daily flights leave Columbus before 7 a.m. while others return after 1 a.m. -- assuming small delays throughout the day haven't pushed back that arrival time until 2 a.m. or later. You might have to leave a little earlier or a little later than you'd like on the twice-a-day flights to Fort Lauderdale and Portsmouth, and the once-daily Kansas City flight doesn't leave Columbus until 9:22 p.m.
The risk is that there is no backup aircraft if one is delayed or is put out of commission because of a mechanical issue. Although the likelihood of breakdowns is minimized by the newness of the planes, Skybus' schedule has suffered extended delays to check out fairly common issues such as electrical glitches.
In early August, for example, a Skybus plane that was to make the trip to Oakland, Calif., was grounded for hours for a maintenance check. To get the Oakland-bound passengers to their destination, after cooling their heels for about five hours in the airport, Skybus had to pull another of its five planes and cancel four later flights in and out of other cities.
"If we have to cancel a flight, we can't just cancel one. We have to cancel two, one out and one back," Quillen said. "When we do have to take a cancellation, we face that and keep on going."
Vasey doesn't see the potential for delays as a major detriment to Skybus' success.
"Airlines cancel flights. That happens," Vasey said. "Skybus has certainly done better than the average for the major airlines this summer, and they've made efforts in some cases to accommodate people by adding flights that other airlines wouldn't have."
Just as other very low-cost carriers do, Skybus counts on cheap tickets -- in its case, as little as $10 each way -- rather than perks to continue drawing passengers. Asked at Skybus' launch announcement whether the airline would have a frequent-flier program, Diffenderffer quipped: "Our frequent-flier program is $10 fares."
Quillen and Skybus President Ken Gile emphasize that Skybus' heavy use of its planes is perfectly safe.
"Some companies fly planes for 25, 26 years if they're maintained well," said Gile, who, like Quillen, was a longtime Southwest Airlines employee before joining Skybus.
The planes' use and maintenance schedules are signed off on by plane manufacturer Airbus, which handles their maintenance for Skybus, and by the Federal Aviation Administration. Airbus subcontracts maintenance work on Skybus planes to Singapore Technologies, which has full-time mechanics in Columbus conducting inspections and performing maintenance.
Quillen said the mechanics in this situation become very familiar with the Skybus fleet. For example, he said, they pay particular attention to high-use items such as tires and landing gear. They've learned quickly which items might wear more quickly with heavy use, and moved to step up the replacement schedule on those parts, he said.
Meanwhile, the FAA approves and does regular inspections of airlines' maintenance operations. Elizabeth Isham Cory, a regional spokeswoman for the FAA, confirmed that every airline is regularly inspected by a team dedicated to oversight of that particular carrier.
"They're continually looking at things like maintenance, training procedures and the qualifications of staff," Cory said.
Skybus investors include Nationwide Mutual Capital, Huntington Capital Investment Co., Battelle Services Co. and Wolfe Enterprises Inc., a subsidiary of The Dispatch Printing Company, which publishes The Dispatch.
mrose@dispatch.com
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"The only way an airplane makes money is when it's in the air, flying in a straight line to its destination." Bill Diffenderffer Skybus CEO
I wish it were so, but Skybus will implode on itself within the year. Without a phone number to call in the event of passenger need, the upstart has some significant hurdles. Go to airliners.net and read the forum discussions on this carrier. Very concerning.
I disagree. Look at the investors. Nationwide, Batelle. They have very deep pockets and are very image-conscious locally.
More destinations are on the way (can't wait for Panama City, myself) and I'll put my money on them still being around in five years.
“These differ from hubs, because Skybus operates point-to-point rather than offering connecting flights as most carriers do. “
What kind of double-speak is this ?
It appears they can get away easier with cancelling flights and screwing the passengers if they sell you two tickets ( A to Columbus, Columbus to B ) then if they sell you one connecting.
I’ll bet that if they cancelled A to Columbus they would try to keep you on the hook for not showing up for the Columbus to B flight.
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