Re: $10 Skybus Fares Might be Overpriced for What You Get
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil D.
The gate agents wore t-shirts. The F/As wore regular long sleeve shirts (no collar) with a logo on it, and none of them were over 25....no seniority at all it seems. He said it remidned him of Trader Joe employees.
I just imagine something bad happening on the plane, and the inexperienced crew not being able to handle the situation. Crash, disgruntled passengers or whatever.
I thought that in the proccess of getting airline certification from the FAA you have to prove that at least some of your staff are well experienced and veteran. In that respect Skybus doesn't look good, but so does the FAA.
Re: $10 Skybus Fares Might be Overpriced for What You Get
I'm sure they have SENIOR people, but maybe not on every flight.
Re: $10 Skybus Fares Might be Overpriced for What You Get
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil D.
I'm sure they have SENIOR people, but maybe not on every flight.
Actually Phil one of the things I read just prior to their start-up they did not want any flt att's with previous airline industry experiance but instead, retail experiance so they would be better at selling all their stuff.
LGA777
Re: $10 Skybus Fares Might be Overpriced for What You Get
Well it's been a little while since we've had a new installment of the Skybus follies so here is the 1-18 update from CMH:
Well friends here's the latest in the Skybus Follies, although I must admit this could have happened to any other airline & no doubt has in the past in some form. Last night (Thursday) their flt 81 to FLL departed CMH around 10:30 p.m. Somewhere around the Ohio River, a bozo drunk, loud mouth passenger from the Cleveland area, decided to start mouthing off to everyone around him to show how important he was. He claimed he was the Federal Air Marshall and supposedly showed some of the passengers some fake badge according to 1 news account. That wasn't good enough, so then he decided to tell everyone around him that he actually had a gun on him and enough bullets to take out everyone on board, from what the news accounts say. It was during this time that several of the Flight Attendants heard what he was saying and didn't think that was such a good idea and notified the Capt. who decided it was time to turn that ole Airbus around & head back to Port Columbus. The flight was met by the Port Authority Police "Welcoming Committee". Apparently according to the latest news reports, he and his Girlfriend had drank 3 -4 drinks and were quite upset at the 3 hour delay the flight was taking. It was supposed to depart around 7:30 p.m. but didn't leave until 10:30 p.m. The Pilot told the passengers they were returning to CMH due to a Mtc. problem. The passengers believed this until they saw the "Welcoming Committee" come on board & take off the 2 of them in handcuffs. The pilot finally came out and told everyone the real reason for the return. Then everyone was removed from the plane & run through security again and reboarded. The aircraft was searched for a gun but none was found. A number of the 134 passengers decided NOT to get back on for various reasons and stayed in CMH. This process they say took another hour to complete. The flight finally departed around Midnight and the Bozo passenger got to spend lots of time talking to lots of local and Federal Law Enforcement people. His girlfriend wasn't charged but he appeared in Federal Court today and has been charged with interfering with a Flight Crew and could possibly be released later tonight on bail.
Interestingly the Skybus Officials today were still telling WCMH-TV 4 that the real reason for the return to CMH was a Mtc. Problem, but they were telling WBNS-10 TV (A financial Backer of the airline) the real story and all the details.
In still other interesting news, On Jan. 6th they inaugurated service from CMH-SWF and Russ from the Friendly Airplane Association (FAA) decided to ground that plane that day for Mtc. problems! Oh well! Their all white A319 remains across the field, but it was brought over to 1 of their Jetway Gates 3 days ago for some reason & left there for several hours & then returned to the Cargo Pad. I also just found out that 1 of their A319's has the Fuel panel on the opposite side of the plane. On all U.S. Planes, it's on the Right wing but this plane has it on the Left wing. So the fuelers have to bring the big tanker truck under that wing & miss all the passengers walking to & from. Then they often park it beside one of the A319's with the fuel panel on the Right side & now you have 2 fuel tankers rear end to rear end & only 1 can pull away at a time. This delays the flights even more. That's the latest from CMH the Skybus Hub that's NOT a hub since ya can't connect.
Now LGA777's coments
As my friend said the First event could have happened on any airline and mine has had similar incidents with intoxicated passengers that has led to flight diversions and passenger arrest. But my issue is even if one CMH TV station is a financial backer you don't tell one story to that station and then change the "truth" with the others, very poor public/community relations IMO. For the second story why would an airline that has such an "experienced" upper management team who has an airline who's gate model is based on ground/airstair boarding to both front and back doors, and who's same model is based on 25 min "quick" turns on EVERY flight (except Originators) lease an "oddball" Airbus that has to be fueled with large tanker trucks on every flight on the left side of the aircraft where passengers are trying to deplane and board? It must be very difficult to do those 25 min turns with this one, especially at CMH!
Re: $10 Skybus Fares Might be Overpriced for What You Get
And if the above was not enough entertainment for you here is todays CMH update.
Well friends, the fun continued for Skybus passengers on Friday morning, after the Passenger with a possible gun incident the night before, who by the way from my source on the inside tells me, this guy with the gun also exposed himself on the plane but that didn't make the news. Anyway, on Friday morning they loaded 2 full 319's, passengers & baggage and were ready to push back when they found out that both planes were bound for destinations that had no Air Start units and both these aircraft had inop APU's and they'd been that way for days from what my other sources tell me. So they had to unload & deplane both aircraft and swap them to other aircraft with operable APU's. When all was said & done they were over 2 hours late departing CMH. They may have had to await inbound aircraft to swap with from PSM & or RIC. I guess that's what ya get when your Flight Dispatchers are contracted out too!!! Also from another source, two morning flts to PGD from CMH & GSO were diverted to PBI due to bad weather at PGD. They both returned to PGD when conditions improved. This was Friday or Saturday. Still a 3rd bit of news from my "Man on the inside at SX" is that they had another DGS Ramp Agent arrested last week for being on some sort of Wanted iIlegal ailean list and deported him back to Africa. That's at least the 3rd person they've arrested while at work. Thursday they continued to drag carts full of bags out of the Baggage Make-up Room and store them on the ramp at gate 16 in the rain for hours. Luckily for the passengers that night it wasn't raining too hard so the bags didn't get too wet. Their Baggage Make-up Room only has space for 3 or 4 carts at the most since it was built to handle 3 North Central Airlines Flights per DAY to MKE, 2 DC-9-30's & 1 CV-580! So the most they'd need would be 2 or 3 carts inside.
That's the latest from the Skybus Central "Focus City" The Hub that's not a hub cause you can't connect
You just can't make this stuff up folks !
LGA777
Re: $10 Skybus Fares Might be Overpriced for What You Get
Ron I love reading this stuff! This should be a feature on the site "Skybus's latest tricks." Its just great! Keep it coming!
Re: $10 Skybus Fares Might be Overpriced for What You Get
I love the way Skybus conducts business! Especially the employee that confronted the passenger who complained about him. Priceless. Well people want cheap fares. This is taking no-frllls to a whole new level.
Re: $10 Skybus Fares Might be Overpriced for What You Get
This stuff is better than TV!
Re: $10 Skybus Fares Might be Overpriced for What You Get
It should get MORE publicity on the news and elsewhere. This gives new meaning to the term discount carrier, and if I were SWA, Air Tran, jetBlue...I'd be petitioning for a third class of carrier...."no-class" because from all these accounts, that is what Skybus is. I can't wait for them to disappear.
Re: $10 Skybus Fares Might be Overpriced for What You Get
they contract out dispatch? :roll: