Monthly Archive for December, 2010Page 2 of 3

Republic Loses DCA Slot Pair to Sun Country

Published
by
Dan Webb
on December 13, 2010
in Frontier, Republic and Sun Country
. 1 Comment

Remember that DCA slot extravaganza I wrote about awhile back? The matter came to a conclusion on Friday, with the DOT announcing that the slot pair currently used by Republic for Frontier service to Kansas City will be awarded to Sun Country for service to Lansing, Michigan. Sun Country said in its original filings that the flights would originate/terminate in Minneapolis, providing new competition in that market, though that doesn’t appear to have been a factor in the DOT’s decision.

Basically, the DOT decided that Sun Country fulfilled the most criteria for the flight, writing that the carrier “is a new entrant, would provide nonstop service to a small community that does not have service to DCA, and has a history of offering low fares.”

Republic had applied to keep the slots, while Southwest, US Airways, and AirTran had also applied.

I can’t say I saw this one coming, as it was easy to get caught up in the battle between Southwest and Frontier/Republic over Kansas City service.  I didn’t expect Sun Country to get the slots, but nevertheless it will be quite interesting to see how the service goes. For example, how much competitive pressure does this provide to Delta in the DC – Minneapolis market? How many of the passengers on these flights originate in Minneapolis or Lansing? In the case of the latter – are there many passengers who would prefer to use Lansing but are instead driving to Detroit for more convenient flights?

But naturally Republic/Frontier can’t be too happy here. While it’s probably a better outcome than having Southwest come in as a competitor for Kansas City service, it still hurts to lose slots. It seems that Republic’s unique structure might have hurt them a bit. One of the criteria for the slot award was that the carrier was a new entrant or a limited incumbent. Republic tried to argue that it was the latter because of the small number of  slots under its control (what it uses for branded service). In its final order, however, the DOT mentions that large number of slots that Republic and its subsidiaries operate at DCA. Of course, the vast majority of that service is for other carriers like US Airways, but that didn’t change their status, it appears.

Frontier will continue to serve Kansas City from DCA, but just with two instead of three flights. US Airways also provides nonstop service which is, ironically, flown by Republic. Nevertheless the loss of the flight is annoying for Frontier, Republic, and Kansas City. (And one would ask, what is the net benefit here? Do the benefits of the MSP-LAN-DCA flight outweigh the inconvenience of the loss of the MCI-DCA service?)

Anyway, Sun Country now has to tell the DOT within 10 business days of the award if it accepts or rejects it. If they accept (and I have no idea why they would not), they  have to start service by April 1. Frontier can continue to use the slot for Kansas City flights until Sun Country service begins.

Meanwhile, the DCA slot situation for Republic is just getting started. The DOT says it will launch proceedings about five slot slides the airline currently uses. What’s a slot slide? Well, each slot at DCA is assigned a time, but under some circumstances the DOT will allow the time to be moved.

You can find the DOT announcement, with an in-depth summary of the proceedings, here.

EDIT: Apologies for anyone who saw the original version of this post. Somehow, last evening, I accidentally pasted in some class notes, and thought I had deleted them from WordPress, but they were hiding in the HTML format of the past. So, yes, some of you got to see my notes for my ecology final tomorrow. Embarrassing, I know!

Is Southwest Gearing Up For ETOPS?

Published
by
Dan Webb
on December 10, 2010
in Southwest
. 3 Comments

Earlier today, a very interesting job opening was posted on Southwest’s website, and the title speaks for itself:

You can see the whole job posting here.

Southwest possibly applying for ETOPS certification is not all that surprising, especially since Hawaii was mentioned a couple of time’s at the airline’s annual media event in October.

It’s also interesting to view this in the context that Southwest, while it has yet to formally announce an order, seems pretty much decided that it will add the 737-800 to its fleet, which according to the airline could be arriving in 2012.

Also worth noting is an interesting post on FlyerTalk, which speculates that all future 737 deliveries will be ETOPS-equipped, including three 737-700s that Southwest has acquired that were previously operated by Virgin Blue. The aircraft are registered N522WN, N523WN, and N524WN (previously VH-VBQ, VH-VBR, and VH-VBS).

If Southwest wants to obtain this certification, there are a whole bunch of steps such as aircraft equipment and maintenance procedures. If you’re interested you can read through the relevant  FAA AC here.

While this is all speculation…seeing this job posting makes it seem a bit more likely that we could see Southwest 737s flying to Honolulu in a few years.

Hat tip to curbcrusher on FlyerTalk for the find.

US Airways Dropping Oslo Service

Published
by
Dan Webb
on December 10, 2010
in US Airways
. 5 Comments

US Airways will not be resuming seasonal service from its Philadelphia hub to Oslo, Norway. The carrier originally launched the route in the summer of 2009, utilizing its fleet of ETOPS 757-200s. Flights were originally slated to launch on May 8, and the last departure from Philadelphia would operate on September 29.

The flights are still viewable on US Airways’ website, though purchase is no longer possible:

My guess is this route wasn’t one of the strongest in the US Airways international network – and plus Oslo is getting additional capacity to the Eastern US this summer, with SAS launching daily service to Newark. Meanwhile, United is currently scheduled to operate two daily 757s on that route as well.

While it doesn’t look like United and SAS are codesharing on the route, it is worth noting that the two carriers have anti-trust immunity (though SAS is not part of the A++ joint venture), while US Airways is not part of that arrangement.

In other US Airways international news, the airline will be upgrading its Philadelphia – Barcelona route from a 767-200 to an A330-200 starting on May 3. And, as announced a few months ago, the airline will launch seasonal service from Charlotte to Dublin and Madrid in 2011.

AirTran Announces Bermuda Service

Published
by
Dan Webb
on December 9, 2010
in AirTran
. 0 Comments

This afternoon and evening is my first real chance all week to catch up on some airline news, and one of the more interesting additions I saw as AirTran’s announcement that this summer it will launch new seasonal service to Bermuda from Baltimore and Atlanta. Both routes will be daily and flown with 737-700s.

Baltimore – Bermuda service has been around for awhile, and US Airways used to operate it when Baltimore was a bigger focus in its network, and flights last operated in 2004, according to DOT traffic statistics. USA3000 started flying it in 2004, and flown it as recently as this summer. But based on the airline’s website, it doesn’t look like it will be flown this summer. So I’m guessing AirTran found a nice little opportunity here. In terms of competition, US Airways has seasonal service from National. AirTran’s flights will operate from April 7 to October 24.

Atlanta service will be operated from May 26 to September 6. Not surprisingly, AirTran will be completing with Delta.

You can also see AirTran’s filing with the DOT for the new service here.

A Very Interesting Delta Promotion

Published
by
Dan Webb
on December 8, 2010
in Delta
. 3 Comments

This evening I received an interesting e-mail from Delta, offering a $25 Amex gift card for flying a roundtrip from the following cities:

  • Boston
  • Columbus
  • Hartford
  • Indianapolis
  • Jacksonville
  • Los Angeles
  • Nashville
  • Norfolk
  • Omaha
  • Pittsburgh
  • Portland
  • Raleigh
  • Richmond
  • Seattle
  • St. Louis

I found this very interesting, if only because it gives us a hint about some of the cities that Delta is targeting. I mean, I knew about Seattle thanks to Delta’s growing international route structure from the city, plus Delta’s strong partnership with Alaska. But I had no idea, that, say, Norfolk was on the radar. But these make sense – for example Indianapolis is an ex-Northwest focus city that just got a new Sky Club and Raleigh got a bunch of new regional flights.

Anyway – I wonder why I was targeted for this? The last time I flew Delta was when I was five! Maybe they’re picking up a Northwest trip from 2007 or some Air France flights in 2008 that I credited to WorldPerks.

Here’s the e-mail:

Hello Mr. Webb,

Give us another chance—and we’ll give you an American Express-branded prepaid card valued at $25.

Register, book, and fly round-trip from your choice of select cities between December 8, 2010, and February 7, 2011, and you’ll earn an American Express-branded prepaid card valued at $25.

Fly with us again and see all the ways we’re building a better airline, not just a bigger one:

  • We’ve brought back our red coats, special customer service agents who can handle your question or problem without sending you to a line or a desk.
  • We’ve teamed up with Google Chrome to offer free Gogo® Inflight Internet access on all Wi-Fi equipped flights through January 2, 2011.
  • The more rewarding Delta SkyMiles® program includes a new three-tier program on delta.com that improves Award Ticket shopping. We’ve eliminated Award Travel redemption fees, too.
  • Look for updated Delta Sky Club™ Lounges in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and New York (LGA & JFK), plus new locations in Philadelphia and Indianapolis.

While we’re proud to fly to over 350 destinations, we won’t rest until each flight is as convenient, comfortable and hassle-free as possible.

Plan your holiday travel today. Register now, book your ticket, and complete your travel by February 7, 2011.

Talking Twitter with Frontier

Published
by
Dan Webb
on December 7, 2010
in Frontier
. 0 Comments

When one thinks about airlines that are active on Twitter, airlines like Southwest and JetBlue quickly come to mind, as both companies adopted the tool very early and also use it very effectively. Delta has also been getting a lot of press about its social media efforts as well.

One airline that has been making some great progress in this area – and I think has been overlooked a bit – is Frontier. The airline has been active on Twitter for awhile with its @flyfrontier account, but in August the Denver-based carrier launched a new account, @frontiercare, that is dedicated to customer service. Recently I had the chance to chat with Marco Toscano, one of the two employees behind the Twitter account.

Marco is a Frontier veteran – he started at the airline eight years ago as a flight attendant, and recently shifted from Frontier’s inflight department to marketing and social media. That front-line experience is useful for his new role. “Having good customer service skills obviously helps,” he says.

I was interested about why Frontier decided to create a separate account for customer service instead of doing everything though @flyfrontier. “I wanted to create a different channel…we have our @flyfrontier channel, which is really our corporate stance,” says Marco, while “@frontiercare is really designed for interacting with our passengers on a one-to-one basis.”

He continues: “We really don’t ever go out on @frontiercare and put out a tweet to our followers. @Frontiercare is really specific to an individual who is…expressing a frustration about a policy or an experience they’ve had with Frontier and then @frontiercare will come in and help them through that to reach a resolution.”

Marco is always searching for people to help. Of course, travelers who are aware of the tool can send a tweet to @frontiercare, but Frontier is also seeking complaints to proactively respond to them. “As soon as we see a frustration that’s being aired through Twitter, we’ll immediately respond to that passenger and try to find out what the issue is and how we can quickly resolve it for them if possible,” he says. Such a strategy creates an opportunity to turn a disgruntled traveler into a satisfied customer. “When the passenger isn’t expecting it, we do get rave reviews at the end of it,” says Marco.

So what can @frontiercare care do? Well, the employees behind the count are trained in Frontier’s reservation system, and they can take care of quick tasks likes changing seats or modifying a reservation. “If we can resolve an issue quickly on the spot then that works best for Froniter and our passenger,” says Marco. And if it’s a problem that can’t be handled quickly via Twitter, issues can be sent to a supervisor to rectify the situation.

I was interested if there were any set hours that @frontiercare was available. For example, Delta’s customer service account, @DeltaAssist, is active from 7am-12am Eastern on weekdays and 8am-10pm on the weekends. Marco tells me that “as the program expands, and as more people get comfortable with using @frontiercare to reach us, as we get more followers, we’re definitely going to look at putting some more structure to listening hours, or times, or having shifts that we will monitor Twitter.”

“We’re always listening,” he adds and says that they are even monitoring tweets during weekends and evenings “when we can catch them.” He continues: “As it gets more successful, we’ll definitely be looking at setting up more of a structure.”

Frontier is also active on Facebook, and is monitoring their page there for feedback, though Marco says Twitter is a bit easier for interaction, especially because it’s easy to hop over to private direct messages, which is helpful when sharing information like reservation numbers.

Anyway – it’s great to see another airline realize the power of Twitter as a customer service tool, and hopefully more customers will begin utilizing @frontiercare. My only suggestion for Frontier would be to set up some defined listening hours so people know when they can get a response, but it looks like that’s already on the agenda.

On United and Lagos

Published
by
Dan Webb
on December 7, 2010
in Continental and United
. 0 Comments

In a few days, United will finally be able to fly to Lagos. Let’s look back – about a year ago United announced it would fly from Washington-Dulles to Accra, and the flight would continue to Lagos. Service was originally slated to start on May 3, but it was pushed back to June 20, and the flight was not going to continue on due to some regulatory hangups. On Sunday, the flight will begin its Accra-Lagos tag.

Merger partner Continental was also supposed to start up service to Lagos about a year from now with its shiny-new 787-8 aircraft, but Boeing’s delivery schedule has slipped since the announcement this summer. But the airline has said that a 777 will be used on the route instead. (No word if that 777 will be a 2-class Continental bird or a 3-class United 777).

Meanwhile, Continental’s other 787 route – Houston – Auckland – has been pushed back to 2012. According to this article, Continental says a 777 is capable of flying the route, but apparently the numbers don’t look as good as they do with a 787. The airline also cited that it could be difficult to find room for such a route in the schedule with all of Continental’s other 777 routes. My guess is Continental forecasted that demand for this route would be a bit on the thin side – which is the exact kind of route route the 787 is meant for – and a 777 would just be too big.

DOT Docket Find of the Day

Published
by
Dan Webb
on December 3, 2010
in Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

I’ll be honest…I’m being a bit lazy today blog-wise as school picks up before finals. I just wanted to share an interesting find from the DOT docket yesterday. It’s common for companies or individuals to express their opinions about an issue the DOT is examining, like the proposed joint venture between Delta and Virgin Blue. Anyway, two letters from GM and Turner Broadcasting caught my eye:

Here’s the letter from GM:

Dear Mr. Secretary:

I am writing in support of Delta’s proposal to expand service to Australia and the South Pacific through an alliance with Virgin Blue. General Motors is headquartered in Detroit, MI but conducts business around the world, including in Australia and the South Pacific region. We rely extensively on Delta for our air transportation needs. With the growing importance of global commerce, Delta’s large international network is particularly important to us.

With Delta’s new service to Sydney in 2009, it became the first U.s. airline to serve all six continents. By partnering with the Virgin Blue group of carriers, Delta will further expand my ability to travel to destinations in the South Pacific, including all of Australia’s major domestic cities as well as New Zealand and the Pacific islands.

And here’s the first two paragraphs from the Tuner letter:

Dear Mr. Secretary:

I am writing in support of Delta’s proposal to expand service to Australia and the South Pacific through an alliance with Virgin Blue. Turner Broadcasting is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga. but conducts business around the world, including in Australia and the South Pacific region. We rely extensively on Delta for our air transportation needs. With the growing importance of global commerce, Delta’s large international network is particularly important to us.

With Delta’s new service to Sydney in 2009, it became the first U.S. airline to serve all six continents. By partnering with the Virgin Blue group of carriers, Delta will further expand my ability to travel to destinations in the South Pacific, including all of Australia’s
major domestic cities as well as New Zealand and the Pacific islands.

Is there an echo somewhere?

Reader Poll: Virgin America at DFW

Published
by
Dan Webb
on December 1, 2010
in Virgin America
. 3 Comments

I haven’t done a reader poll in a few weeks, so I figured it was time for another one. Today Virgin America launched service to Dallas with flights to Los Angeles, and service to San Francisco follows on Monday. There will be two daily nonstops from each California city.

This tweet got me thinking about how the airline will compete in the markets.

Of course, American has a huge hub in Dallas with multiple daily flights from both cities. By the time Virgin America’s first departure on a normal day form LAX rolls around at 10:55am, Americn has already had multiple flights. So American has the schedule advantage, which is aided by connecting traffic that flows through DFW. United has a presence on both routes as well.

Then again, Virgin America, in my opinion, has the greatest hard product in the country. No other airline can guarantee Wi-Fi, free TV, and in-seat power on every flight. The airline is no stranger to competition – though it has pulled out of one market (San Francsico – Orange County) in the past. I think they can make it, personally – and hopefully Virgin can build up a more competitive schedule over time.

So I ask….

Will Virgin America be successful at DFW?

View Results

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Air France Sends the A380 to Washington

Published
by
Dan Webb
on December 1, 2010
in Air France
. 1 Comment

Air France announced Tuesday that it would send its A380 superjumbo aircraft to Washington-Dulles this summer, with daily service beginning on June 6.

Photo credit: Air France

An interesting note from the press release:

With the A380, Air France can rationalize its frequencies on these busy routes by combining two flights which leave at similar times while offering the same seat capacity at a 20% reduction in operating costs. The main deck of the A380 boasts equivalent capacity of a Boeing 777-200 and the upper deck that of an Airbus A340-300.

Dulles is a perfect example – Air France tells me that last summer they operated three flights to Washington with a mix of 777s and A340s. This summer, only two flights will be operated, with the A380 and 777-200ER.