September 27, 2006

Boyd on Skybus

THIS GUY IS GOOD!!!

Michael Boyd, president of The Boyd Group, an aviation consulting firm in Evergreen, Colo., questioned whether the Columbus market needs another low-cost carrier, since Southwest and JetBlue airlines already fly there and the region "has outstanding service for crying out loud." He predicted the airline will struggle to fill seats.

"I don't buy it," he said. "I'd like to see it. I'd like to buy it. The more competition the better. But I don't know where this huge underserved market is out of Columbus."
The low-cost airline industry is a difficult one to enter. Boyd cited as examples the bankruptcies of Washington, D.C.-based Independence Air last year and Columbia-S.C.-based Air South in 1997. Air South had received $12 million from the state of South Carolina to begin flying to 10 cities, mostly in the Southeast in 1994.

Boyd said he hopes Ohio isn't making a similar mistake with its money

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember Boyd on JetBlue with a similar theme. He's bound to be right once?!?!?

A saw an article on Festival today in the Rockford paper. Looks like they are getting ready to announce, and rumor is RFD - RSW will be one of the first routes.

Bill Randell said...

I had to look-up RSW, which is Fort Myers. Looks Festival will follow the same model as Allegiant serving secondary cities flying to destinations that Allegiant does not. I think there is room for Festival and Allegiant in these markets.

Have no idea what Boyd said about JetBlue.. Skybus, however, competing against SouthWest and JetBlue--no way.. I agree with Boyd.

Anonymous said...

Things are a bit slow here, so with the past talk about highway/road constr to facilate econ growth, I thought I'd post this link with a bit of History about the I 290 project, which is Worc's lifeline.


http://www.bostonroads.com/roads/I-290_MA/