Cone, Guarino and Hoggard have more on the demise of Skybus. At issue is just how much of the $57 million in incentives were paid out. Admittedly, much of it was performance-based, so it appears that Skybus wasn’t able to benefit. Doesn’t matter, though; incentives are incentives, right?
Here’s the bottom line:
“Their business plan had no chance of survival,” said Michael Boyd, the president of The Boyd Group Inc., an aviation-consulting company in Evergreen, Colo. “If oil prices were half where they were, it would have just prolonged the inevitable. Their load factors were terrible. Yes, 70 percent load factors, but the first 20 seats are giveaways, so it’s more like a 50 percent load factor.”
Update: Here’s what JLF’s Michael Lowrey had to say at the time.
