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
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…
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.
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:
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.
Photo credit: Chris Weyer.
This announcement goes along with AirTran’s recent moves. Continue reading ‘Why AirTran’s Move in Des Moines Is Interesting’
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 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:
Looks good! Though the Falcons one is still my favorite.
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’
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.
Flight reported earlier this week that AirTran is looking at potential replacements for the 717, of which AirTran is the largest operator:
The low-cost operator likes the size of the 717 and would probably not go smaller, AirTran senior director of strategic planning and scheduling John Kirby said at Boyd Group International’s Aviation Forecast Summit in Lexington, Kentucky earlier this week. He adds that the carrier is interested in a seating range between 100 and 120.
The Bombardier CSeries is under consideration and the Embraer E-190/E-195 is “logical”, but Kirby says the carrier is not ruling out the possibility that Boeing might introduce another aircraft.
The mention of the 190/195 is not shocking, and it would make sense. On a side note, it could also make the airline the first American operator of the 195.
It is certainly not surprising that the CSeries was mentioned, but it would certainly be exciting for Bombardier to have the CSeries break into the American market. One would assume that AirTran would order the CS100 to replace the 717s. The larger CS300 is more of a competitor with the 737-700.
But what mystifies me is the statement that Boeing might come out with a replacement here. It was also reported that AirTran “would like to replace its oldest aircraft five years from now.” So far, both Boeing and Airbus have been talking about 2020 as a potential date for new narrowbody aircraft. Does this mean that AirTran will split the order? Or do they know something that we don’t?
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