Airline Name
Skybus Airlines (Skybus Airlines Incorporated)IATA: SX / ICAO: SKB / CALLSIGN: SKYBUS
Founded in 2004, commenced operations in 2007 (May 22nd), ceased operations in 2008 (Apr. 5th)
(Financial difficulties, attributed to slowed economic growth and rising fuel costs)
Country of Origin
United States of America, North America ()
Main Hub(s): John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH), Piedmont Triad International Airport (GSO)
Aircraft Types Used (from those available in WoA)
(All operated types are in WoA already.)Aircraft operated:
Airbus A319 (no specific variant, A319) - 13 former.
(Pictured below: N553SX - later broken up)Here’s an alternative to that livery, featuring a simpler scheme:
(Pictured below: N572SX - now known as OO-SSN)I wasn’t sure whether or not to call it an ‘older’ livery, because it seems as if both livery designs were used together, without one coming after the other or anything like that.
However, this simpler livery also allowed for some special livery schemes, such as these next few:
(Pictured below: N551SX - later broken up, known as EC-NBD at end of its life)It seems as if that livery was meant to promote Capital One, though I’m unsure of any further context surrounding it.
Though, on the topic of these, Skybus also made another promotional livery, this one for Nationwide Insurance, which I’ll now show:
(Pictured below: N522VA - later broken up)And finally, their last special livery was a promotional livery of… themselves, actually. Here’s what that looked like:
(Pictured below: N552SX - later broken up, known as EC-NBC at end of its life)In case you’re wondering what that little text at the aft fuselage reads, here’s a better shot:
(Pictured below: Ditto, with a close-up view of the tail section)
Why should this airline be added?
I’d say this airline should be added because of its notable and interesting history and time as an airline, albeit a short one at that. The airline also had a nice bit of variety with their liveries, having a decent selection of both standard and special liveries, especially for its fleet size, and given it operated late into the 2000s, it’d be awesome if this was possibly added as a normal map contract operator, but I’d get it if it was added as just an event airline.Compared somewhat similarly to the likes of Ryanair, Skybus was designed as an ULCC (Ultra Low-Cost Carrier), with an emphasis on being the least expensive airline in the United States. It primarily aimed to do this by serving less populated/busy airports and routes, alongside flying to secondary airports as opposed to larger, busier and more expensive airports - for example, they chose to fly to SAN instead of something such as LAX.
On that note, from what I saw, this airline served quite a variety of airports in the States, such as, well, San Diego itself (a few pictures above actually were taken at SAN lol), New Orleans and Seattle/Vancouver, though I’m not quite sure about the last few, as only San Diego was properly documented with photos/media. Their A319s did end up in Vancouver after the airline ceased operations, though again, I’m unsure if they actually operated there.
Either way though, it’d be a small, yet unique and quite an interesting airline to add to the game, in spite of its relatively short tenure, mainly thanks to its quite notable history and the variety in its liveries, which I think look pretty nice honestly. It’d definitely make for great event/special contract material (such as at SAN), or even possibly make for a normal map operator, though who knows?
SOURCES:
Skybus Airlines’ Planespotters.net Page
Skybus Airlines’ Wikipedia Page
Skybus Airlines’ Map of Routes (where MSY and SEA/YVR were mentioned)