DALLAS (Bloomberg) — Skybus Airlines Inc. started service yesterday with some tickets as low as $10 for a four-hour flight across the US. The new carrier's goal is to charge even less."We're sort of embarrassed our fares are as high as $10," chief executive officer Bill Diffenderffer said in an interview.

Closely held Skybus is betting it can mimic the success of Ryanair Holdings Plc, Europe's biggest discount airline, which routinely gives away tickets while charging fees for baggage and selling merchandise and ad space in cabins. Diffenderffer says fares initially will make up 85 percent of revenue at Columbus, Ohio-based Skybus, and the ratio will fall from there.

Skybus is "really pushing low-cost, self-service to the limit," said Alan Sbarra of San Francisco-based Roach & Sbarra Consulting. "But if the fare is low enough, I think people will do what it takes."

The carrier, which began flying with 14 jets, promises to sell at least 10 seats per flight for $10, with the rest costing at least "50 percent below whatever was prevailing in the market before," Diffenderffer said yesterday.

Like Dublin-based Ryanair, Skybus will fly to smaller airports that charge lower landing fees and are less congested. The airline's goal is to get planes airborne with a new load of passengers after just 25 minutes on the ground.

Service started yesterday from Columbus to Kansas City, Missouri; Portsmouth, New Hampshire, near Boston; and Burbank, California, a Los Angeles suburb. Flights begin in the next week to Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Greensboro, North Carolina; Oakland, California; and Bellingham, Washington, 78 miles north of Seattle.