What are destination cities saying about Skybus?
The general reaction so far to Skybus has been a pretty postive one here in Columbus. But is the buzz just as strong in the eight destination cities? Is anyone excited about cheap airfare going to Columbus, or are we just an inconvenient layover on the way from Boston to San Francisco?
Here’s a couple of quotes from some selected news sites.
The Bellingham Herald wrote Ken Oplinger, president and CEO of the Bellingham/Whatcom Chamber of Commerce and Industry, hailed the news from Skybus. “The continued growth of the Bellingham/Vancouver market has brought a number of air carriers to our community over the last few years, but the potential expansion which Skybus brings is unprecedented,” Oplinger said. (READ MORE)
Scott Ayer’s Blog on The Bellingham Herald wrote News of the impending arrival of Skybus airlines will not be welcome throughout Whatcom County. Already some people are starting to express concerns that the airport will grow too large and end up damaging our small community.
How big do we want Bellingham International Airport to get? Is it OK if we end up with the biggest minor airport in the region — something smaller than Seattle of Vancouver, but much larger than the airport we have today? (READ MORE)
The San Jose Mercury News wrote Even if Columbus is not your destination, it’s located within 200 miles of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh. (READ MORE)
The Los Angeles Times Daily Deal Blog wrote Anybody want to go to Ohio? Anybody?
Why Go: I used their system and found that I could get to Columbus for $20.40, and then Columbus to Boston round-trip for $36.30. Columbus back to Burbank was $85.40. That’s Burbank to Boston for $142.10 round-trip, including taxes. I included a couple overnights in Columbus between flight segments so I could seek out more reasons to take advantage of $10 tickets.
Why Not to go: Columbus is the only destination available from Los Angeles (Burbank). (READ MORE)
Kansas City InfoZine wrote “According to the most recent Department of Transportation data, the average one-way air fare between KCI and Columbus exceeded $140,” said VanLoh. “We anticipate Skybus will substantially lower the average fare, allowing more passengers to fly between these two growing cities.” (READ MORE)
Greensboro News & Record wrote Skybus will soon offer promotional $10 seats on flights from Greensboro to Columbus, Ohio. Now, once people exhausted the jokes about $10 airline tickets (”Free life jacket with every purchase!”), the question was, “Why did the chicken book a flight to Columbus?” (Naturally, to be closer to Toledo.)
However, you could also pose the reverse question from the Columbus end — why Greensboro, North Carolina? Skybus already had the answer: PTI is located near the middle of the state, a spokesman observed, close to the Charlotte and Triangle markets.
But doesn’t Greensboro have just one or two attractions to offer? After all, we are the birthplace of Vicks VapoRub. (READ MORE)
Richmond.com wrote All of the flights either originate or terminate in Columbus. Therefore, if you wanted to fly from Richmond to Seattle on Skybus, you would have to book two separate flights. First you would have to fly to Columbus and spend the night. The next day you would fly to Seattle. Upon your return, you would have to spend the night in Columbus again before heading to Richmond. While your travel plans would have to be pretty flexible, the cost savings might be well worth the hassle. (READ MORE)
MiamiHerald.com wrote Columbus ranks as one of the airport’s largest underserved markets. More than 108,000 passengers connected through other cities to fly from Fort Lauderdale to Columbus in 2005, Belleme said, citing Department of Transportation data. (READ MORE)
The Pink Slip Blog wrote $10 one-way, weekday, if I’ve got it straight - means that pretty much everybody in Portsmouth can afford to make the trip. Heck, at that price, the people in Portsmouth almost can’t afford to stay home.
But I’ve been to Columbus and, while it’s a pleasant enough city, unless you’re an Ohio State Buckeye, part of the state government, or trying to sell something to Nationwide Insurance, I don’t think there’s all that much that would woo you there on a steady basis. (READ MORE)
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April 30th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Ouch :( Sometimes I guess it’s good to get a real perspective of what other cities in the country think of our hometown.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Honestly, I didn’t think it was that bad. The harshest criticism naturally came from a blog, while the larger mainstream papers were mostly non-committal.
The same kinds of criticism could be levied against MOST cities - only the really-big name destinations are going to avoid those kinds of knocks.
All this does is show that Columbus still needs work to build it’s “brand image”.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Yeah, only a few sites I could find were actually making fun of flying to Columbus, so not as bad of a reaction as I had expected.
The one thing I found most interesting is that most flights where people are using Columbus as a switching point requires them to spend the night here since most Skybus flights are only once per day.
This could be great news for our city as it will naturally bring in more money to hotels and whatnot, but could give people a reason to check out our town who otherwise might not normally plan on coming here.
I think this is all the more reason that we need a light-rail link from the airport to downtown. Why should these visitors be limited to staying in cheap hotels and eating fast food next to the airport? Give them the cheap option to come visit the Short North while they’re here and they might find themselves coming back again! :D
April 30th, 2007 at 10:32 am
That would be hot.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:41 am
And smart! ^_^
April 30th, 2007 at 11:04 am
You just said you can get from the airport to GV for 20 bucks after tip :P
but a light-rail would be sweet!
April 30th, 2007 at 11:22 am
Yeah, but cab rides require visitors to know where they’re going and specifically ask the driver to take them there. A rail shuttle into “downtown” promises visitors a more interesting destination than “the airport” and the ability to return back to where they left with ease.
Plus, a $40 round trip cab ride is quite a bit pricier than a round-trip rail-ride. I’m guessing it could be kept below $10. Probably more like $5. No tipping required! ;)
Anyway, the tracks are already in place running from the Arena District/Convention Center straight out to the airport, and according to the spokesman at the Columbus Re-Wired charette I attended, the railroad companies that own the lines have already expressed interest in using them for this purpose.
It would do nothing but making things more convenient for conventioneers, and make Columbus more attractive to host conventions. And residents around downtown would be given a cheaper option than the cab rides or multi-day parking lots at the airport.
It’s got my vote! :)
April 30th, 2007 at 11:30 am
+1
I was just going to ask you if you knew how much light-rail tickets were in other markets, like Portland or something similar to Columbus.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:36 am
I just looked into the SanFran BART tickets and to get from Oakland Airport into downtown SanFran is only about $6 or so. With the shuttle from Oakland Airport to BART being $3. Not too much.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:42 am
Wow that sounds great! then I could take the street car from my house to downtown and the light-rail to the airport :!:
April 30th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
From Philadelphia’s airport to downtown is pretty cheap on the rails, too. But they have the advantage of much larger volume to spread costs around than we would. Philly’s airport is massive.
April 30th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
I have been viewing this site since the beginning of the year and finally decided to sign up. I attended one of the Next Generation’s “cafe’s” a few weeks back and “branding” was one of the questions. I think the general knocks come from most outsiders’ (west coast & east coast) view of the midwest. Same reason why Ohio is the state used when discribing a midwestener on TV.
Skybus is a big plus for the city and hopefully will be a success story. I see the other destinations using Skybus for travel to regional cities (as the one article pointed out) to Cleveland, Indy, Cincy, etc. Rather catch a next day flight to Boston, Richmond, etc.
April 30th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
That’s exactly what we’ll be doing when we go in September. Just wish we could do the same thing on our end!
April 30th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Hey! Welcome to the site! Thanks for sharing your thoughts! :D
The big problem I think going to be disassociating “Columbus” with the traditional negative connotation associated with “Midwestern”. Typically, Chicago isn’t thought of as “a midwestern” city, it stands on it’s own. Some cities like Cleveland and Cincy stand on their own a bit too, but Columbus doesn’t have that branding you speak of to be able to hold it’s ground in the eyes of everyone not from Ohio.
April 30th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Agree. Some related questions. . .
Is the new YP committee going to be working on this “branding” or respond to the Next Generation’s recommendations? What is the next step (or short term goals) is the YP Committee going to take? - I am assuming you were choosen as one of the committee’s members. If these questions were brought up in another post, Sorry.
April 30th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
No, this wasn’t brought up elsewhere, and to be quite honest, I have no idea what this committee is going to be doing. We’ve not had our first meeting yet, and I’m nearly foaming at the mouth over here waiting to see what this thing is going to be all about. :lol:
Rest assured, I’ll keep everyone posted as soon as I get some details. :D
April 30th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
its funny to think of someone flying halfway across the country for $10 and then paying $20 to get from the airport to the SN. :)
anyway, what a great setup that would be since the rails are already in the ground.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
day pass for TTC in Toronto, which includes all rail and bus transportation, is $8.50 canadian… or if you’re just doing a there and back it’s $2.75 canadian cash fare each way, or $5.50 canadian. the american dollar doesn’t hold all that much of an advantage these days, how i miss the old days.
but toronto kicks ass, columbus is still far from kicking ass.
May 28th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
READ MORE
May 29th, 2007 at 8:54 am
Sounds pretty good (the skybus part). He didn’t seem to have too many complaints. I wouldn’t expect seat back TV’s.
May 29th, 2007 at 10:00 am
Wow! That “ugly stepsister” crack really came out of left field!
May 29th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Yeah, I was thinking the same. For a complimentary article on Columbus, that was a little unneeded. And who the hell would rather go to Cleveland???
May 29th, 2007 at 10:16 am
Meh, to each his or her own. I wouldn’t want to live in New Hampshire, so no reason to expect someone there would necessarily want to live here.
May 29th, 2007 at 10:29 am
until we can get the census bureau to change the way they map citizen counts, we are lumped in with the rediculous “midwestern” tag.
anybody can look at a map and see that ohio has nothing to do with any tag that has “west” in it. it’s is much more “middle america”, “midnorth”, or even “mideast”. still, i think it has more to do with the fact that the areas that lie west beyond chicago have a pretty small demographic. if they were to remove ohio (#7), michigan (#8), and illinois(#5) from the midwest demographics. i’m pretty sure all that land to population would look quite pathetic.
fyi the (#) are the ranking of most populated states.
which brings me to my last statement. seeing as how we make up a huge chunk of the midwest demographics along with 2 other middle of america states… it shouldn’t be called the “midwest”! 8)
as for the topic, i’m very glad that skybus is here, and i think that columbus capitalizing on the fact that many new visitors will be here via skybus over night layovers, is just as important for skybus’ longevity as it is for new visitor’s perception of columbus.
May 29th, 2007 at 10:57 am
Agreed. Not that Columbus is one of the most beautiful cities in the world or anything, but I’d hardly call it “ugly” when comparing it to Cleveland. :lol: