scheme. The first sponsored aircraft, aircraft N522VA leased from Virgin America, promoted the theme "Nationwide is on Your Side" Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. It was created by an airplane media company, SkyBrand, based in Seattle. Skybus had also had some self-advertising on the orange tails of its white planes that read, "Skybus. $10 Fares ... Only Birds Fly Cheaper." The company's standard font was Frutiger, itself created for the travel industry in 1974 for Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. The first leased aircraft for Skybus that came from Virgin America, had 144 seats on board, and flew with three flight attendants. Flight attendant uniforms were also used as a means of advertising. The uniforms for both male and female flight attendants consisted of black shoes, black casual dress pants with black long sleeve T-shirts. The front and back of the T-shirts would advertise a Skybus focus city, along with an advertising slogan specific to that city or a generic Skybus ad phrase. Flight attendants purchased their own uniforms and were allowed to choose and wear the T-shirt style of their choice. Captain and First Officer uniforms did not have advertising and were of traditional airline style (olive green shirts with epaulettes and black ties). Criticisms Skybus hubs (CMH and GSO) did not provide connection opportunities for passengers. Skybus highly discouraged connections; as such, passengers wishing to interchange at hubs would have to move bags between flights (on their own) as bags could not be checked on a multi-segment itinerary. Startup incentives In an effort to attract the airline to the city, as well as support its growth early on, the city of Columbus, along with the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, had offered incentives totaling over $57 million. These incentives included a twelve-year tax credit, promised airport improvements, business loans, and marketing support. Most of the incentives were performance-based, which required Skybus to create 1000 jobs and complete other milestones to receive the incentives. Incentives such as airport improvements, however, were already completed. When Skybus began operations, they took advantage of $11 million of improvements to their gates in Concourse B at Port Columbus. Financing Skybus was financed by numerous high-profile companies nationwide and locally. As of April 2, 2007, Skybus had raised an estimated $160 million in startup capital which includes $72.7 million in their second round of fund raising. That was among the largest amounts of start-up