Skybus: 80,000 passsengers a month, 5 planes

When it comes to running a tight ship, new airline Skybus seems to have learned RyanAir's lesson on operating lean. According to an article by Marla Matzer Rose of the Columbus Dispatch, the startup is currently serving 80,000 passengers a month with only 5 planes.

The ultra-efficient service shuffles these planes through 11 airports each day on 28 separate one-way trips, for an average of 13.2 hours of flight per plane per day. The worldwide average for the A319 that Skybus uses is less than 9 hours. In the U.S., United and America West, using the same model, fly 11.9 hours a day.

Of course, starting with brand-new planes give the Skybus an advantage in this department, allowing them to shrink the turnaround time between arrival and departure to only 25 minutes.

As an example of this tight scheduling, the article follows the daily journey of one plane:

• Leaves Columbus 6:55 a.m.
• Arrive Portsmouth N.H. 8:39 a.m.
• Leave Portsmouth N.H. 9:04 a.m.
• Arrive Columbus 10:53 a.m.
• Leave Columbus 11:18 a.m.
• Arrive Oakland 1:16 p.m.
• Leave Oakland 1:41 p.m.
• Arrive Columbus 8:57 p.m.
• Leave Columbus 9:38 p.m.
• Arrive Kansas City 10:14 p.m.
• Leave Kansas City 10:33 p.m.
• Arrive Columbus 1:10 a.m.