This is an interesting passage from USA Today:
The Dispatch says Skybus' passenger yield for the quarter came in at 5.08 cents. By comparison, the Dispatch says Southwest's passenger yield is 12.5 cents while the major carriers average 13 cents. "These are rock-bottom yields, especially in this age of skyrocketing fuel costs
While a previous post of mine showed my "back of the envelope" calcs as:
A quick check on the Skybus site shows CMH-BUR(LA) as $100 which translates to a RPM of $0.05/mile or 0.045 with an 80% load. Granted, they try to sell $390 fares. Even if they can manage to get their average fare at $200 this would still be $0.09/mile. The low costs were having a tough time keeping their CASM below that when oil was selling below $50.
The $0.05/mile calc assumed essentialy full loads! By comparison Southwest RASM is around $0.09 while their CASM is in the $0.065 range. I seriously doubt that the Columbus lads can get their CASM lower than that, irregardless of the amount of smoke and mirrors they use.
With these kind of yields, they are essentialy screwed!
