Sunday, April 06, 2008

Skybus Ends Service, Third Airline to Fold This Week

$100 million in investments and government incentives stand in jeopardy

Per Bloomberg.com:

By Nancy Kercheval

April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Skybus Airlines Inc., a U.S. low- fare carrier that started operations less than a year ago, stopped service today, the third airline to shut down this week as fuel costs soared and the economy slowed.

The closely held, Columbus, Ohio-based airline began offering service May 22 with some tickets as low as $10 for a four-hour flight. It will seek bankruptcy protection next week.

Aloha Airgroup Inc., a closely held Hawaiian airline that filed for bankruptcy protection, ended service April 1 when it couldn't find a buyer or financing to stay in business. ATA Airlines Inc., a Midwest carrier based in Indianapolis, shut down the following day when it sought bankruptcy protection, blaming its demise on high fuel prices and the loss of a contract for military charter flights.

"Nobody has a long-term viable business plan that can be sustained at these jet-fuel prices," said Darryl Jenkins, an airline consultant. "This is a killer category. We're probably going to see some more casualties out there."

About 90 percent of airline routes probably aren't profitable, Jenkins said. ``What do you do in a situation like that?'' [...].
Read the full article here.

Skybus's collapse leaves financial stake-holders, (including Wall Street investment banking house Morgan Stanley,) holding the bag for a cool $100 million, including state and city funding and incentives.

And there's even more chirpy economic news from Bloomberg:

Bankruptcies Jump 30% in March, Led by Housing-Bust States

Don't let the cat get your tongues.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

One helluva down hill ride we are on, and the Bush Admin cant even seeit.

Anonymous said...

Here in this city we have a mayor who is still trying to give the golf course away because it cost to much to run it. But in the same sense the mayor does not care how much his staff spends for a new vehicle. A year of so ago Mark Johnson bought a new Humm Vee and brought an embarrassment to the Mayor, and now this month the same Mark Johnson and the Police chief senator Jon Grenier have gone out and bought with our tax money brand new Cadillacs escapades SUV's.
Why doesn't the Mayor really pay attention to the real waste to the city through his own administration? What's up with this Mayor. Please tell us the truth about this Issue. I think that you should cut back on all the pork in your administration before you cut the public services.
So give us a break. Will you.

Anonymous said...

Sunday's paper had a story about how a renter was left with the landlords water bill located on C Street. The landlord will allow this property and 3 others there to go into foreclosure this week. How is the city going to handle more foreclousures on property in the city? With the current economics will the expected renenue drop cause the taxpayers to fund more city sponsored new developments while the older established neighborhoods suffer. What other department heads can the city buy new cars for?

Mark E. Towner said...

It's DaJa Vu all over again. September 11, 2001 was the beginning of the end for aviation in this country. Before that faithful day, aviation was on a comeback. Cessna was actually making new piston aircraft, and the prospects of small air charter operators was looking like we actually might be able to reach the potential of serving small communities around the US. I like thousands of other small operators lost everything when the FAA shut down flight operations for 90 plus days, then imposed security restrictions in Utah for the Olympics. The only way to save this industry is for the congress to remove all federal taxes on fuel for the next five years, and appropriate funds to replace this from the general fund. If they do not do this right now, watch this industry dry up and die in the next 12-24 months along with all the jobs that are associated. Our country will go into a depression, forget about a recession.

Post a Comment

© 2005 - 2014 Weber County Forum™ -- All Rights Reserved