Archive for the 'AirTran' Category

A Quick Look at Boston-Baltimore

Published
by
Dan Webb
on March 18, 2010
in AirTran, JetBlue and Southwest
. 5 Comments

Earlier this week, AirTran said it would be offering double A+ Rewards credits between Boston and Baltimore for trips booked and flown between March 15 and May 21. The airline has run a similar promotion before, but has now sweetened the pot by making those bonus credits eligible for elite status. My guess is that AirTran wants to build up some loyalty, since right now consumers only concerned about price can find a great fare Southwest, AirTran, or JetBlue.

That promotion made me want to investigate the market by looking into T100 data – and it’s very interesting to look at. Traffic has flourished with passenger counts increasing over 150% year-over-year in December (the most recent data). And control of the market has shifted a good amount. In December 2008, AirTran had over 70% of the market with some competition from Comair. In December 2009, AirTran was still the dominant carrier, but its market share had eroded to 48%.

Fares on the route decreased over 28% to $95.65 in the third quarter of 2009 compared to the same period the year prior. That number, however, doesn’t paint a clear picture since Southwest entered in the middle of August and JetBlue launched in September. We’ll probably get some more clarity once the DOT’s fourth quarter data is released.

But this is a market that I’m very interested in and want to study further, especially in terms of connecting passengers. For example, how many of Southwest’s passengers are using Baltimore to get to the rest of their network? The same question can be asked for AirTran. Meanwhile, how many JetBlue passengers on the route are going to Boston to tap into their network? Hopefully my professors will be kind in the homework department in the near future so I can check things like that out. :D

AirTran’s Interesting Milwaukee Move

Published
by
Dan Webb
on March 5, 2010
in AirTran
. 2 Comments

To be honest, it’s been an annoyingly slow news week airline-wise. Yeah, traffic reports and RASM estimates are kind of exciting, but I usually wait for all of the airlines to release results, because it just gets redundant otherwise, I think. So hence today’s fast post.

But this morning an interesting press release came over from AirTran about Milwaukee. And it’s not a new rote announcement:

ORLANDO, Fla., March 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AAI), today announced that the airline will host its annual shareholders’ meeting on May 18, 2010, at the historic Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee. This marks the first time the Company’s annual meeting will be held in Milwaukee. AirTran Airways operates a hub in Milwaukee and is the fastest growing airline at General Mitchell International Airport.

Is it just me, or is this decision to not have the meeting in Orlando, where AirTran is headquartered, fairly symbolic here? I think it shows that AirTran is really committed to this market. Heck, AirTran is calling itself “Milwaukee’s largest mainline carrier” and it’s opening a crew base there. Clearly they’re ready to face-off Midwest for an extended period.

There’s definitely a lot of overlap between the two airlines. But Midwest does have some advantages here, I think. First, while it’s probably eroded a decent amount, they still have brand loyalty as Milwaukee’s hometown carrier. Second, they still have some unique markets, especially the smaller ones with the ERJ service, so that can drive some connecting feed to their other flights. On a related note, Midwest does have some greater fleet flexibility. The smallest AirTran can go is 117 seats with the 717 (granted, there are a five SkyWest CRJs working for them, too), while Midwest can use those E170s, etc. in markets that might not work out for AirTran. Finally, Midwest has been able to expand its reach with the Frontier codeshare.

And, like I usually write here, it will be interesting to watch them duke it out.

AirTran Partners with Amex To Woo Business Travelers

Published
by
Dan Webb
on March 1, 2010
in AirTran
. 2 Comments

An interesting press release came this morning from AirTran, with the carrier announcing that American Express would be partnering with AirTran, or as they describe themselves, “America’s Most Business Friendly Airline.” The promotion is aimed at members of American Express’ OPEN Savings program. The OPEN card is meant for small businesses.

So what does the partnership mean? Members of the OPEN Savings Program can save 5% on all AirTran flights. Hertz and some hotel chains are already members of the program, so adding an airline the mix rounds out that program nicely. Of course, AirTran is hoping that 5% discount will send some more business travelers its way.

But you need not be an OPEN member to benefit from this promotion – from March 13th to the 27th, American Express will be sponsoring free Wi-Fi on all AirTran flights. (On a side note, I wonder how much of that revenue goes to Aircell…)

And while we’re on the topic of Wi-Fi, AirTran called itself “the only airline with Business Class and Wi-Fi on every flight.” AirTran’s done this before in press releases. Virgin America has Wi-Fi on every flight, too. Can we just accept it and move on?

Anyway, I think this is a smart move.

Photo Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wbaiv/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

AirTran Continues Battle With Allegiant

Published
by
Dan Webb
on January 29, 2010
in AirTran and Allegiant
. 4 Comments

I’ve written here before about how AirTran has really beefed up its competition with Allegiant of late, and that’s one of the biggest reasons for Allegiant moving some operations from Orlando Sanford to Orlando International. Well, AirTran isn’t stopping and announced yesterday that it would enter Grand Rapids with service to Baltimore (two daily flights) and Orlando (one daily flight).

Grand Rapids is one of the markets that will have its Allegiant service moved from Sanford to MCO, though it’s not because of AirTran – Delta has a daily Compass E-175 flying on the route. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure how long that service will last now with that extra capacity. I would imagine that Delta’s nonstop to DCA (only a few times a week on a Pinnacle CRJ) might be a bit at risk as well.

It’s certainly been interesting to watch these two carriers duke it out. As always, we’ll just have to watch…

AirTran Makes the Milwaukee Hub “Official”

Published
by
Dan Webb
on December 30, 2009
in AirTran, Midwest and Republic
. 0 Comments

Well, that’s at least how I view yesterday’s announcement saying that AirTran will open a crew base there in April, which will have 50 pilots and at least 50 flight attendants. AirTran has been calling MKE a hub for awhile, but opening up a base while having “line maintenance station, regional human resources, sales and community relations staff” shows that the airline is serious about the market.

Speaking of AirTran in Milwaukee, the airline slipped in a nice little dig at Midwest in a recent presentation – when AirTran was showing its Milwaukee route map, it called itself “Milwaukee’s largest mainline carrier,” now that all of Midwest’s 717s have left the fleet and been replaced with Republic E-Jets. It should be noted, though, that AirTran’s partnership with SkyWest out of Milwaukee has already begun.

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The Battle of Key West Begins

Published
by
Dan Webb
on December 21, 2009
in AirTran and Delta
. 4 Comments

Back in September, AirTran announced it would begin nonstop service to Key West from Orlando with 737-700s – though Orlando is only an intermediate stop as the flights originate or terminate in Atlanta. Then, shockingly ( ;) ), Delta decided soon after that it would add mainline service (also 737-700s) to Atlanta in addition to pre-existing service operated with CRJ-700s.

Funnily enough, both carriers started service on the same day. My friend Chris Weyer was able to snap pictures of both inaugural flights receiving water cannon salutes:

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Why AirTran’s Move in Des Moines Is Interesting

Published
by
Dan Webb
on November 30, 2009
in AirTran
. 2 Comments

For the first time since 1998, AirTran will be serving Des Moines – that city was announced with the SkyWest announcement from a couple of weeks ago, but AirTran said on Friday that they would start service to Orlando with service starting March 6. The service will be operated with 717 aircraft. What’s interesting is the competition with Allegiant in the market, and the potential advantage that AirTran might have thanks to SkyWest.

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Photo credit: Chris Weyer.

This announcement goes along with AirTran’s recent moves. Continue reading ‘Why AirTran’s Move in Des Moines Is Interesting’

Double A+ Credits on AirTran MKE Nonstops

Published
by
Dan Webb
on November 20, 2009
in AirTran
. 0 Comments

Ah, Milwaukee’s been a fun market to watch with AirTran and Midwest duking it out, and now Southwest has joined the party. So with that extra competition, it’s not surprising that AirTran is launching a promotion for bonus credits. I got this e-mail yesterday:

To celebrate our expanded low-fare service into and out of Milwaukee, we are awarding double A+ Rewards credits for every flight between November 19, 2009, and February 10, 2010. That means you earn 2 A+ credits for every one-way flight you take instead of the usual 1 A+ credit.

You can register for the promotion here.

AirTran’s Latest Football Livery

Published
by
Dan Webb
on November 6, 2009
in AirTran and Photos
. 2 Comments

AirTran has already released some special liveries for the Atlanta Falcons and the Baltimore Ravens, and now a third, for the Indianapolis Colts, has been spotted. Kudos to Chris Weyer for snapping these pictures at Hartsfield:

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Looks good! Though the Falcons one is still my favorite.

SkyWest to Begin Flying for AirTran

Published
by
Dan Webb
on November 5, 2009
in AirTran, Midwest and SkyWest
. 0 Comments

The drama in Milwaukee does not want to end.

Remember Midwest Connect? Technically, every aircraft in a Midwest scheme now has Midwest Connect titles, but I’m talking about the service that used to be flown by Midwest subsidiary Skyway, which only handles ground operations at this point. That flying was then taken over by SkyWest. When Republic came in, the agreement with SkyWest was terminated, and the service is being replaced with ERJs flown by Republic subsidiary Chautaqua.

So, SkyWest needed to find a home for the CRJs, and it has been announced that they will be operated for AirTran out of…Milwaukee. Yep. It really doesn’t get any better than this. Continue reading ‘SkyWest to Begin Flying for AirTran’

Yet Another Wi-Fi Promotion

Published
by
Dan Webb
on November 2, 2009
in AirTran
. 0 Comments

We’ve seen a few Wi-Fi promotions from a couple of carriers over the past couple weeks, and now AirTran has joined the party. According to last week’s press release:

Starting November 1, 2009 and lasting until December 31, 2009, all AirTran Airways passengers that buy one full-priced in-flight Wi-Fi session will get their second Wi-Fi session absolutely free.

What’s interesting is that promotions from Virign America and American have had a corporate sponsor, and this weekend’s from Delta was for a charity, while this seems to be a purely AirTran promotion.

AirTran has a nice little dig at Virgin America in its press release:

We are the only major airline with Wi-Fi on every flight and the response has been tremendous. Our customers really appreciate knowing with confidence, on AirTran, the web is always ready when they are,” said Kevin Healy, senior vice president of marketing and planning for AirTran Airways. (Emphasis mine)

Virgin is the only other carrier with Wi-Fi on all of its aircraft.

Anyway, a nice move by AirTran.