Charleston says goodbye to Skybus
April 8th, 2008 by ericampeterson
Friday’s news that Skybus, a Columbus-based low-cost airline, had filed for chapter 11 and would no longer be providing service came as a surprise. Just a month ago, there was excitement in Charleston when the Charleston and central West Virginia visitor’s bureaus voted to each give $500,000 to help bring Skybus to Yeager Airport.
In a story that aired on CBS Channel 13, County Commissioner Kent Carper said that he hoped the money that had been invested would be returned.
“We knew we could lose it all, but we didn’t know it was on such shaky ground,” he said.
What are the ethics involved here? When Skybus was taking West Virginia’s money in early March, the airline had to already have had an inkling that their financial status was not the most stable. Weren’t there annual reports, shareholders reports, etc. available?
As it turns out, the Gazette reported that the money invested will be returned. Charleston definitely needs a low-cost airline (round trip tickets from Chicago to Charleston, a roughly 1 1/2 hour flight usually start around $275), but with rising fuel costs (ATA also went belly-up last week) it doesn’t seem like they’ll be getting one any time soon. Now there’s a spare $1 million floating around…any suggestions?
Photo courtesy of marada
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