Travel 29 Aug 2007 01:58 pm
Q&A with SkyBus CEO
by Sean Hackbarth
Popular Science interviews SkyBus CEO Bill Diffenderffer. Some may see SkyBus’ strategy of offering cheap plane tickets but charging for everything to be nickle-and-diming the customer. Diffenderffer counters:
Q: Your business model also requires passengers to pay for any extras—drinks, blankets—piecemeal. Will consumers go for that?
A: They were paying for it before! Those were never free. Why should you be made to pay for all those sodas and blankets that other people use that you don’t?Q: You’re even charging for checked luggage, $5 a bag.
A: If you don’t check a bag, why should you pay for those who do? We make our prices very clear, so we’ve had very few complaints. If you pay $80 for a Skybus flight instead of $180 for the competitor’s flight, and you pay $5 for a bag and $2 for a soda, that’s $87 versus $180. America can do that much math.
“Flying à la Carte: Q&A with Skybus’s CEO” [via Instapundit]