Air Transport

US start-up Skybus Airlines plans to terminate service from its Columbus, Ohio base to Bellingham, Washington and San Diego, California, citing the high cost of fuel.

Service to Bellingham will be discontinued on 6 January, while flights to San Diego will be axed on 7 March.

Both routes will have been served by Skybus for less than a year; the Airbus A319 carrier inaugurated service to Bellingham on 29 May and to San Diego on 16 July.

Additionally, Skybus says it is cutting one of two daily nonstops to Burbank, California on 6 January.

Customers holding reservations on discontinued flights to Bellingham will be given full refunds. Passengers on the discontinued Burbank flights will automatically be rebooked on the remaining Skybus flight to Burbank. No seats have been sold to San Diego past 6 March so passengers will not be impacted.

“Based primarily on the sharp increase in the cost of jet fuel, we needed to take a look at our scheduling strategy and find ways to use our fleet more effectively to serve more passengers in more cities,” says Skybus CEO Bill Diffenderffer.

Skybus today also announced plans to boost service from Columbus to Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, North Carolina and Punta Gorda/Ft Myers, Florida.

“Within the next few weeks, we will be making significant announcements about even more service expansions that will strengthen and broaden our route structure to meet what has been heavier-than-expected demand,” says Diffenderffer.