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Skybus Airlines will open a base of operations here, returning a true discount air carrier to Piedmont Triad International Airport.

The airline said it will add nonstop service to seven cities, including the Los Angeles and Boston areas, with the first new flights beginning in January.

With its daily flight to Columbus, Ohio, Skybus will have 11 daily flights from PTI by the end of February.

Skybus also will create as many as 375 jobs and invest more than

$350 million in aircraft and equipment for this operation, the company said Monday during a news conference that included Gov. Mike Easley.

Reservations for the new flights go on sale at 6 a.m. today only at http://www.skybus.com. The airline has no customer service telephone number, and tickets are not available at any of the popular travel service search engines.

For PTI and airport authority Chairman Henry Isaacson , Skybus represents the end of a personal struggle to plug a long, slow leak of passengers who sought lower fares at Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte-Douglas International.

Skybus' operations here will mean cheaper and easier flights and possibly better fares from other airlines seeking to compete, said Isaacson, who worked for most of this past summer courting the airline.

The airline offers at least 10 seats on every flight for $10 each, with fares rising from there.

New jobs will include:

• 13 pilots per plane;

• 20 flight attendants per plane;

• assorted ground handlers and maintenance coordinators.

An incentive package from state and local governments and economic development groups worth about $7 million over nine years helped recruit the company.

Skybus officials said they chose PTI because the incentives were generous, and every flight to Columbus since the airline began flying here in May has been nearly full.

PTI's location in North Carolina helped as well.

"It's in the middle of the state," said Skybus Chief Executive Officer Bill Diffenderffer. "We want people from Raleigh. We want people from Charlotte. I don't know if y'all noticed the highway system, but it looks like it's been rigged."

He stressed that incentives were very important.

"Without the total package," Diffenderffer said, "much as I love you guys, I can be bought."

Mike Hodge, the company's chief financial officer, said a package offered by Richmond, Va., was similar to the one from the Piedmont Triad.

Skybus will help an ailing airport that has seen passenger numbers drop as its airlines raised fares without competition from a low-fare airline.

AirTran Airways, a low-fare carrier, pulled out of PTI in 2004, and fares have grown since.

Passenger figures dropped until this past summer, when new flights by Skybus and Allegiant Air began discount service.

A Triad-wide combination of hard work, cooperation and money helped lure the company to PTI.

Before the state Department of Commerce approved its Job Development Investment Grant of up to $4 million for the company on Monday, Isaacson and others toured the region raising commitments from governments and economic development organizations.

That raised about $1.5 million for marketing Skybus. Top donors included Guilford and Forsyth counties as well as the Piedmont Triad Partnership, Hodge said.

In addition, the airport authority last week approved a three-year incentive that will give any airline adding new nonstop service $2.15 for every passenger who boards a flight.

That means Skybus could earn another $1.3 million a year if it fills every 150-seat jet on every flight from PTI for the next year.

Skybus is the second major project in 2007 that involved cooperation from leaders throughout the Triad.

Executives at Honda Aircraft Co. said in February they were particularly impressed with cooperation among Triad officials to win the company's headquarters and HondaJet manufacturing plant.

When Skybus got federal approval to launch the airline, Isaacson and Ted Johnson, PTI's executive director, went to Columbus for a celebration.

Isaacson spotted some executives at the party.

He remembers saying, "Let's see if we can go over there and say hello. He looks like somebody important."

It happened to be CEO Diffenderffer, who said, "We love Greensboro."

Not long after, Isaacson invited the CEO to attend PTI's first flight for Skybus, and he made another quick visit.

While he was here, Isaacson said, "We've got big plans for Greensboro, and we'll discuss them later."

Isaacson and Johnson went to Columbus in June to pay a formal call on Skybus, which said it was ready to add a new base city.

In the coming weeks, Isaacson said he built a friendship with Diffenderffer over several telephone calls.

"It's a good relationship, it's very personal," Diffenderffer said.

Isaacson knew he had to persuade Triad business leaders to back the Skybus effort so he led a group of representatives from each city to meet in Columbus.

Soon, Skybus officials were closely inspecting Greensboro.

Isaacson said six other cities were competing and "they were some heavy hitting cities," he said.

"After that, it was putting together our incentive package," he said.

About a month ago he learned the airline had chosen PTI, and Hodge came to town to work out the deal. For three days, Hodge worked with Isaacson and the airport's consultants.

"Before we left," Isaacson said, "we shook hands and he said, 'I think you're going to see Skybus in Greensboro.'"

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or dbarron@news-record.com