Rude Awakening for Skybus

And established airlines are set in their ways. In fact, until JetBlue(JBLU Quote) came along, the industry believed fervently that passengers would never use New York's Kennedy for domestic flights.

Contrarian Diffenderffer said low fares also offer advantages. They draw so much attention that Skybus doesn't need to advertise. Additionally, they are just the first financial contact with the passengers. Services, from food to early boarding privileges, are sold. Even more services will be sold to people attracted to the airline's Web site.

In a sense, Skybus competes not with American, but with Amazon(AMZN Quote) and Expedia(EXPE Quote), making the fare irrelevant. "Ultimately what I want is to charge nothing for the flight," Diffenderffer said. "The most important thing is to have people come and look at the Web site and do good things there."

Dent, who said he has no claim to the Skybus name, wished the airline well. "I always thought it was a great name, and I'm glad somebody picked it up," he said.