SkyBus USA

[inveritas]

More Ryanair staff are leaving for SkyBus in Columbus Ohio. Jim McMahon - Head of Scheduling for Ryanair has given a couple of weeks notice. Charlie Clifton - Former Ryanair Director of Ground Operations and In-Flight is on the Board of Managers. One of the Ops people and one of the main engineering gents from Ryanair are also leaving in the next month. Rumour also that Ryanair STN Manager Flight Ops will also join them in December. Morgan Stanley is assisting with financing and recruitment.

[GBALU53]

Do they know something that nobody knows about at the moment.

For so many to leave for a compant that is only just getting started seem odd to me.

Is there more things to come out of this could this be a part downfall for RYR.:sad: :sad:

[tiggerific_69]

maybe they have been headhunted?surely its going to be something to compete with the new Virgin America when that takes off,and if skybus is a loco airline,theyre going to want people experienced in that environment,and to be fair, RYR do a good job of loco.

[Farrell]

The great thing about a management 'model' is that if you combine it with a forward-thinking Chief Executive who has probably seen this coming for ages, then they shouldn't even feel a bump in the road over the exit of these folks.

[RogerIrrelevant69]

Yeep you are probably right Farrell and it's not the first time a head honcho type has moved on outta FR to pastures new. More money and/or power usually does the trick.

GBALU53
Any speculation about possible imminent demise of FR being reason for their departure is really laughable. I take it that is some sort of wind-up attempt?

[seacue]

Unfounded speculation alert.....

I don't know who is behind SkyBus USA, but it might be Texas Pacific - whose honcho is David Bonderman, Board Chairman of Ryanair. He was involved in straightening out Continental and America West a few years ago.

Hmmmmm.......

[pineridge]

Could this be a first move by MOL prior to entering the USA market? Could RYR possibly have a financial interest in SkyBus? Is Elvis really dead?

[Say again s l o w l y]

As RogerIrrelevant mentions, this isn't the first time this has happened at FR. Conor McCarthy left and then went on to Air Asia and got that out of the mire. Look at it now!

[Middle Seat]

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061026/clth019.html?.v=70
No mention of David Bonderman
CEO is Bill Diffenderffer
President is Ken Gile
Aircraft are ugly. (just had to be said, see link)

financial support from the state of Ohio:
COLUMBUS – In anticipation of the launch of Columbus-based Skybus Airlines, the City of Columbus and the Columbus Regional Airport Authority are prepared to set forth more than $41 million in financial assistance for the company, including performance-based incentives based on the expected creation of more than 1,000 jobs. Skybus, the next generation of low-fare airlines, plans to begin flying to major markets from Port Columbus International Airport in the spring of 2007.

The support programs, which include a combination of tax credits, grants, performance incentives and loans, total more than $14 million from the City of Columbus and up to $27 million from the Columbus Regional Airport Authority.

[Carmoisine]

More Ryanair staff are leaving for SkyBus

It's a real shame that they won't take a few more off us, I would be quite willing to let them take EW, DOB and MOL too :E

[barit1]

Local assistance (http://www.columbusairports.com/news/press/release.asp?PID=224) to this free enterprise. :)

[Iron City]

IS that your tax dollars at work Barit1 or some federal money from the airport and airways development block grants program?

Don't believe Columbus gets direct federal money

[ATC Watcher]

Could this be a first move by MOL prior to entering the USA market? Could RYR possibly have a financial interest in SkyBus? Is Elvis really dead?
Not a chance if you look at they web site and their commitmentS :

All of us at Skybus love what is at the heart of the airline business — flying people from where they are to where they want to go. But there are a few things we don’t love about it, namely:

* High fares
* Connecting flights through busy airports
* Uncomfortable, small regional airplanes
* Late arrivals
* Lost bags
* Unfriendly service

We have a plan to change all of that. And we have quite a few people, both investors and employees, who have a lot invested in believing we can change it. The plan is simple — to give you, the traveler, what you want. Which is why with Skybus, you’ll get:

* Really low fares
* Nonstop service to major destinations
* New 150-seat jet aircraft
* On-time arrivals
* Luggage that arrives when you do
* A smile

You may not believe it, and judging by what’s been happening with airlines over the years, we don’t blame you. So we’re going to prove it.

All that’s left to do now is wait and watch. "

The 2 last bullets - statements in each para say it all....

[MarkD]

well Ryanair rarely said no to cash from an airport as the European Commission will tell you!

[Ignition Override]

As for the eternal overcapacity in most US markets, how could another low-cost, hub and spoke (inherently inefficient) route structure, which always refuses to pay pilots much more than a UPS delivery truck salary, create high-morale and "friendly service", as was stated above?
In the US, airlines receive no extra federal income tax 'breaks' or subsidies to pay for the high fuel prices.

Southwest, might not be a model for this new outfit-it has a linear route strurcture and grew very slowly, beginning around 1972.
Although Southwest was not mentioned in previous posts, do the new airline entrepreuners not realize that without an efficient, linear route structure, which is critical for high asset productivity, there is not nearly much money to be made with the hub and spoke concept, unless they create an entirely new concept?

The lower the pay and benefits at a typical small passenger or freight airline (B-737s and larger..), the higher the turnover, at least when the economy grows and furloughed pilots are recalled to other companies. In the last several years, not to mention in the 80s and 90s, the classic low-cost airline model was too pay pilots beans, knowing that people are always available (or subsidized by military retirement checks: look at how Atlas Airline's miserly 747 payscales were created...:oh: ) when they leave the military, get laid off or a company fails.

Good luck to them if they can motivate and build/sustain good morale in a workforce, paying them a lorry/truck driver salary, or much less for FAs and gate/ramp staff after two or three years, with the mantra that "you save, somehow, for your own retirement out of your rock-bottom salary..it is not our problem :cool: ".

[stator vane]

shows how vital they are to the operation at ryanair.

we as flight crew are required to give a 3 month notice. and i suspect if we don't, we won't get our last payments.

i will most likey be testing this out myself very soon.

[Mach Buffet]

Rats and sinking ship?

[flown-it]

From that news release (see post by middle seat)...The standard A319 seats 124 passengers. Skybus has not announced the specific seating configuration of its aircraft, but the airline will use a single-class configuration for all of its flights.
I think the US operators classically seat less than 130. So how are you going to fit in 150 of Americas finest?
* Really low fares
* Nonstop service to major destinations
* New 150-seat jet aircraft
* On-time arrivals
* Luggage that arrives when you do
* A smile

[rubik101]

If you had flownit in UK, the A319 that is, you would know that a one class layout on the A319 will fit more than 150 with standard seat pitch.

[Hansol]

OK lets get some facts straight Jim McMahon is not head of scheduling, Charlie Clifton is not on the board of Directors, he is a former employee who is involved in a number of start ups around the world. So lets not have the Ryanair mass exodus panic! panic! line.

[inveritas]

Sadly Hansol you are wrong. Sean Coyle is Director of Scheduled Revenue but as most people in the know in Ryanair will tell you it is Jim McMahon who is the key to the Scheduling Dept and who drives the aircraft integration and revenues. He will be sorely missed.

Of course Charlie Clifton cannot be an operations FAA accountable Director of Skybus - as he is not a US citizen. He is the man driving Skybus and it's "Ryanization". But the truth is Skybus will be filled with Ryanair senior staff within six months.

Ryanair has few enough competent senior managers - and fewer still coming through - they have so few to lose - that losing 10 is a nightmare.

[brian_dromey]

The standard A319 seats 124 passengers. Skybus has not announced the specific seating configuration of its aircraft, but the airline will use a single-class configuration for all of its flights.
I think the US operators classically seat less than 130. So how are you going to fit in 150 of Americas finest?

* New 150-seat jet aircraft

Actually the "standard" A319 fits 150 in a one class lay out. The high capacity A319 fits 156, has 4x overwings and very, very small galleys. U2 launched this version, and I think it is also operated by Germanwings. It is a fact that American Carriers do not put as many seats in their a/c as european airlines do. Here the A320 regularly seats 174, where as in the US it seats around the 156 mark, even with LCCs, like B6.180 over here is not uncommon either. Similarly the 738 seats up to 189 but in the states its far less, perhaps about 160. Im also pretty sure that even the 739 never had 189(its max) in service in the US.

Americans just havent met the concept of Low-Cost, No Frills, euro style. It means exactly that. NO pillows,NO Seat Recline, NO Space, NO TV, NO Snacks, Drinks etc. I suspect Sky bus will be a "euro style" LCC. I suspect that it will be strongly based upon the FR model. The only reason they have 319 instead of 737? Airbus must have given the a/c away for a song, boeing are not exactly in dire need of new aorders at the present time. Oh, ya the image of a whiskey swagging lawyer must have played significantly on tr Boeing sales teams mind as well!:}

[Albotross]

The Entire Operation Sucks.

[flown-it]

I stand corrected. I was thinking of the two-class A319s operated by the Legacy carriers in the States. Having suffered in the middle seat deadheading across the States in a legacy A319, I cannot imagine 150 of them accepting the European seat pitch.:ugh: