As I stepped out of my hotel room, this was on the front cover of USA Today. If you’re consistently flying out of a mid-sized airport (check the graph here for percentage declines), try scheduling a flight on your regular route a few months into the future to see if it still exists and plan accordingly. If you’re flying into an airport that typically supports a vacation destination, you should also review future flight routes. The financial fallout has had a huge impact on vacation and business flight routes even for the larger airports.
Plan now and save time in the future.
The DOT has released some figures regarding air travel delays during the busy summer travel season.
- John F Kennedy International (JFK) in New York was worst among North America’s 40 busiest airports, with les than 55% of flights arriving on-time
- LaGuardia (LGA), also in New York, was the 2nd worst with 58% on-time arrival rate
- Rounding out the NY trio was Newark International (EWR) with a 60% on-time arrival rate
- For reference, the average at all other major airports was 74%
- JetBlue was the worst performing airline in July with less than 70% on-time arrival rate
- American Airlines was worst in June, with only 58% on-time arrivals
So, if you plan your travel around avoiding delays, then next year consider flying to Salt Lake City (on Southwest Airlines). SLC had nearly an 86% on-time performance, and as usual Southwest was the major carrier with the best on-time performance. Here is the full report
UPDATE: For those of you looking to book flights - please visit the Skybus website at http://www.skybus.com/.
Sounded like a scam to me, so I checked it out. Not as applicable to your typical road warrior, but the business model is interesting.
Everything is ala carte so you pay a premium for items such as meals, priority seating, check-in luggage, etc. Skybus let’s you select and pay for exactly what you want.
All the planes are brand new Airbus A319’s with the following benefits:
- Is large enough to be more comfortable than traditional regional jets, yet able to land at regional airports. With the A319 you get the best of both worlds: the benefits of using a small airport - and a comfortable ride.
- Has the exceptional range of 3,700 nautical miles/6,850 kilometers, giving us the capability to fly you non-stop across the continent.
- Typically seats 156 passengers, with comfortable leather seats throughout the cabin. Note that all seats on Skybus flights are a single class - there is no First or Business-class seating.
- Has wider aisles than other planes in its class, making it quicker and easier for passengers to get on and off.
- Is a ‘state of the art’ aircraft with the latest electronics and flight instrument equipment.
Straight from their rules of flying:
Don’t pay for everyone else’s baggage.
On Skybus, you pay only for what you check. The first two bags are 5 bucks apiece. After that, it’s $50 a bag (yeah, so pack smartly). Less baggage means faster turnaround and cheaper tickets. Fair deal?
Hungry? Thirsty? Bring cash.
Most people love our full cocktail bar and food menu, but if you’re not into that, it won’t cost you a penny. Why should your ticket cost include your neighbor’s dinner? That also goes for blankets and pillows–which, by the way, you get to keep if you buy. Oh, and don’t sneak food onboard unless you brought enough for the whole plane.
Bring a book.
We’re not big fans of fancy in-flight entertainment systems. So grab that best seller at the airport, or buy a Sudoku puzzle onboard if you’re feeling brainy. You’ll touch down before you know it.
Don’t call us.
We don’t have a phone number. Seriously. We’d love to chat, but those phone banks are expensive. And a good website like skybus.com is even more convenient.
Don’t be late. We won’t be.
Please arrive no later than 30 minutes before takeoff, or we’ll leave without you. Really. By that time, there won’t even be anyone to check your bag. It’s nothing against you–we just have to keep our flights on time, or things get expensive in a hurry.
Don’t expect an army of gate agents.
You probably won’t see any agents at the gate until boarding time. Remain calm! Just print your boarding pass at skybus.com and relish in the savings.
Yeah, we’ve got preferred seats. Sort of.
There are no fancy reclining beds onboard, but you can pay 10 bucks extra to board our brand-new A319 airplanes before anyone else.
Tickets are nonrefundable.
Refunding a ticket costs everyone, so we don’t allow it. Of course, our tickets are so cheap it wouldn’t have been much of a refund anyway. If you need to change a ticket, your punishment for breaking a date with us is $40.
Bigger is not better.
Big airports can be a big pain. We choose less crowded and more convenient secondary airports for better punctuality and, of course, lower prices.
No spontaneous dancing in the aisle.
We realize you might be excited about paying a ridiculously low fare, but please refrain from any unbridled dancing onboard. This includes jumping for joy, disruptive cheering, and celebratory break dancing.
Oh, and they currently only fly to a few places:
- PSM - Boston (Portsmouth, NH)
- CMH - Columbus, OH
- FLL - Ft. Lauderdale, FL
- GSO - Greensboro, NC
- MCI - Kansas City, MO
- BUR - Los Angeles (Burbank, CA)
- RIC - Richmond, VA
- OAK - San Francisco (Oakland, CA)
- BLI - Seattle/Vancouver (Bellingham, WA)
The limited selection of cities probably nullifies this as an option for business travelers, but it’s interesting to note how our current flying conditions pave the way for business models like this. Would there be a Skybus.com if we didn’t have such congested airports? Not likely.