Skybus

Lets hope we are in discussions with these guys:

Columbus-based Skybus Airlines Inc. plans to build its business on the Airbus 319 aircraft as it begins to pull together details of its planned spring 2007 launch at Port Columbus International Airport. The airline and Airbus said today the low-cost carrier has ordered 65 A319s aircraft over an unspecified period, beginning delivery in late 2008.

Skybus President Ken Gile told Business First the low-cost carrier will begin service using three leased A319s. It expects to expand using leased aircraft until it begins accepting new airliners from Airbus. "When we looked at our economics, we decided the best choice was the A319," Gile said. Chicago-based Boeing Co. also competed for the business.

At retail prices, those 65 aircraft cost $3 billion. "We've negotiated a better price," Gile said, who declined to reveal details of the deal. A contract for engines to power the aircraft remains in negotiation, he said. Airbus said the Skybus order is among the largest for a U.S.-based start-up carrier. "It is exciting to get in on the ground floor of such a promising operation as Skybus," Airbus Chief Operating Officer John Leahy said in a press release. "It has been a few years since an order of this meaning and magnitude has come from a low-cost start-up airline, and we are professionally flattered that Skybus has turned to the A319 as the core of its fleet."

The A319 entered commercial service in 1996. The standard A319 has 124 passenger seats. Skybus has not disclosed its seating configuration, but said all of its aircraft will use a single-class layout