New upstart- Pittsburgh Airlines

PIT could be a good base for a start up if CMH can work for Skybus then why not PIT for a new low cost carrier. Of course, Skybus had very good solid financials and took years to get off the ground. I doubt they'd add PIT as a focus city though.

The only other new carriers that I have been hearing about for that long was Virgin America and Air Gumbo. Virgin America has of course since started flying and I doubt they will add PIT as a hub. Air Gumbo was planned to be based out of MSY but I think the guy planning that venture has had trouble finding investors and again I doubt PIT would be a hub for them If they ever start flying. If any other investors decided to start a new carrier and base it out of PIT it would probably be years before they started flying, if it were to be a sucessfull venture and well funded. Of course someone could always throw something together overnight in conjunction with some charter outfit like Pace or Xtra Airways ala Hooters airlines but they were unreliable ultimately because they could not afford to pay for fuel when it suddenly increased and they cancelled flights suddenly.
 
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PIT could be a good base for a start up if CMH can work for Skybus then why not PIT for a new low cost carrier. Of course, Skybus had very good solid financials and took years to get off the ground. I doubt they'd add PIT as a focus city though...
'Skybus may cut flights to West Coast'
That's the headline from The Columbus Dispatch of Ohio, which writes Skybus might "at least temporarily" discontinue "three of its five West Coast flights in the spring when it puts a new batch of tickets up for sale for March and beyond." The newspaper says Skybus will end the one daily flight it currently flies to both San Diego and Bellingham, Wash., and use the aircraft from those routes for additional flights to its already existing destinations Greensboro, N.C., and Punta Gorda, Fla. Skybus is also expected to drop one of its two daily round-trip flights between Columbus and Burbank, Calif. Skybus' current flight schedule runs through March 8, though the Dispatch says the airline is set to extend that during the next few weeks.

As for the West Coast flight reduction, the Dispatch says Skybus would not confirm the changes, "which apparently were unintentionally posted early on skybus.com yesterday afternoon." The Dispatch says its sources at Skybus say the airline's bookings have been strong on the West Coast routes, but the shorter routes perform better financially. At least two other low-cost carriers -– JetBlue and Southwest -– have also tempered their emphasis on cross-country flying recently to focus more on shorter routes.

For Skybus, aviation consultant Doug Abbey of the Velocity Group says there are pros and cons for the expected changes. "The yields on a per-mile basis tend to be better on short-haul flights, but it also pulls down (aircraft) utilization," he tells the Dispatch. "The great thing about long-haul flights across time zones is that you're maximizing utilization."
 
So just because they are re-evaluating their routes doesn't mean they are not a well funded start up. They supposedly had more startup cash than Jetblue had when they started service. I was suprised to read that the CMH to GSO route has been one of the stellar performers....who would have thought that? for any major carrier that would have been an RJ or turboprop route if serviced at all.
 
:lol: :lol: :lol: I LUV IT! Especially the ending with the pilot. I was based in PIT for years and many (PIT ) believed PIT was the end all and be all. No reason to go anywhere but dawntawn....This video really hit home!
 

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