Archive for the 'Frontier' Category

Republic: Our Lufthansa?

Published
by
Dan Webb
on February 25, 2010
in Frontier, Midwest and Republic
. 8 Comments

Republic’s certainly been a fun player to watch of late. The regional carrier has  become what some might call a “real” airline after acquiring Frontier and Midwest, instead of just focusing on fixed-fee operations. Republic did release its fourth quarter earnings last night, but let’s talk about the future, because that’s just more fun. :D

Today we saw an even more interesting development with Republic’s announcement that it will order Bomardier’s CS300, certainly a big boost for the type and the manufacturer. Republic plans to order 40 of the type with 40 options, with deliveries starting in the second quarter of 2015. The aircraft will seat 138, and there will be 5 rows of STRETCH seating for 25 passengers (the aircraft is in a 2-3 configuration). And that’s basically all we know for now. Which is where things get interesting.

A Bombardier rendering of a Republic CS300 aircraft.
Photo Credit: Bombardier.

At face value, this order looks like a replacement for Airbus aircraft, especially those that might be coming off lease in the future.  The CSeries will seat two more than Frontier’s current A319s. Bombardier is promising some strong economic benefits of the aircraft. Bryan Bedford called the aircraft “game-changing” during today’s earnings call, and it was also mentioned how it will provide “great flexibility” for them. Clearly, if the CSeries does end up doing great on the cost side of things, that certainly helps give Republic an advantage in competitive markets like its Denver and Milwaukee hubs.

This order might make Boeing and Airbus get moving on a decision on re-engining the 737 and A320 families, respectively. Plus, it might want to make other carriers take a closer look at the aircraft now. (United and AirTran, strong competitors in Denver and Milwaukee, respectively, have both expressed interest in the aircraft.) But back to Republic. Continue reading ‘Republic: Our Lufthansa?’

Midwest Continues to Rebuild its Route Map

Published
by
Dan Webb
on February 22, 2010
in Frontier and Midwest
. 0 Comments

Apologies in advance for a quickly-written post. Last night I began having a lot of trouble with my laptop. My biggest fear is that I’ll end up with a new hard drive today.

Anyway, Midwest announced some new routes last week, and the airline continues to rebuild its route map from past cuts. When Midwest dumped its MD-80s Milwaukee lost nonstop service to Seattle, forcing passengers to go through Kansas City (and more recently, Denver as well). Well, Midwest is restoring Milwaukee service on a seasonal basis three times a week from May 14 to June 10, and then four times a week until September 6. The schedule of the service is kind of interesting – the outbound leaves at 7:55 PM, arrives at 11:20 PM, then leaves from Seattle at 11:45 and comes back to Milwaukee at 5:35 AM.

I found it pretty interesting that it was decided to make the SEA-MKE route a redeye. I think one reason for that Midwest  schedule is so that E190 can fly that route at night while keeping its normal schedule during the day. (On a side note, at first it seems that Midwest’s schedule was a bit unique, but it appears that AirTran has a redeye now as well. I’m not sure if that’s new, though.)

Second, Midwest is coming back to San Diego from April to November with daily service from Milwaukee. When that station was cut, it only had service from Kansas city. The service will be provided with Frontier A319s.

Additionally, Frontier will be adding another flight between Milwaukee and Denver, for a combined six flights between the cities from Frontier and Midwest. My hope is that the route is being added because demand for codeshare routes between the two airlines.

On a side note, Midwest’s press release mentions how both the Frontier A319 and Midwest E190 feature STRETCH seating. Does this mean that Midwest Signature Service has been rebranded? (Midwest didn’t reply to my question on that one.)

Anyway, I’ll have more thoughts on Frontier/Midwest/Republic when earnings come out later this week…and when I have a working laptop.

Frontier Falls in Love with E-Jets

Published
by
Dan Webb
on February 5, 2010
in Frontier
. 4 Comments

We had some interesting announcements from Republic/Frontier yesterday. Frontier issued a happy press release entitled, “Frontier Announces Summer Schedule with New Service,” while the Republic side of the house’s news was called, “Republic Airways Announces Fleet Simplification Plan,” which is PR-speak for “we’re dumping Lynx for Republic.” Nevertheless, these moves show Republic’s growing influence on the airline, and it also show Frontier’s new strategy – looking for smaller markets that Southwest and United aren’t all that excited about serving. So let’s take a look at the changes.

Eliminating Lynx

Frontier-subsidiary Lynx aviation, which operates eleven Q400s, is being eliminated, and will be replaced with Embraer 170 and 190 aircraft. Service will remain at all Lynx destinations except for Fargo and Tulsa, which will see their last service on April 5th, and Lynx will be completely gone by mid-September. Frontier has had some E190s in Denver for a short while now, so it’ll be interesting to see some 170s come over as well.

At first, this move actually made me chuckle. Let’s review Frontier’s regional carriers. First Frontier worked with Mesa in 2002. But that lasted a whole two years. Next was Frontier JetExpress, which was a service flown by Horizon, then Frontier used Republic E-170s, but that was cut in favor of Lynx Q400s, which will now be phased out for Republic E-170s…again. But to be honest, the move makes sense. The Q400 fleet is small, and Republic can use its own aircraft and crews, and it already has a bunch of E-Jets as well. From an economics perspective, having a small fleet of Q400s just didn’t make too much sense.

When it comes down to brass tacks, however, 175 Lynx employees are losing their jobs. They’ll be offered positions at Frontier and Republic if available.

New Markets

Frontier announced a bunch of new routes yesterday, which is certainly fun to watch. One of them is Ft. Myer’s – that’s been seasonal for awhile, so apparently the market is strong enough for a few flights a week with an E190/A318. But let’s take a look at the brand new markets. All of them involve Embraer 190 aircraft. So now we know what Republic wants to do with those aircraft from US Airways – looking for smaller markets where it can avoid competition. And the 190 seems to be the perfect aircraft to do it. Continue reading ‘Frontier Falls in Love with E-Jets’

United Announces Return to Anchorage

Published
by
Dan Webb
on January 18, 2010
in Alaska, Frontier and United
. 0 Comments

United announced last week that would come back to Anchorage after leaving in 2008. In the past, United flew there year-round with an increase in service during the summer, but in 2007 it said that the city would only be a seasonal destination. A year later, the decision was made to cut all service entirely.

But after a year hiatus, United will come back with the same destinations it had when it left: its Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco hubs. All will have daily service, though Chicago gets an extra frequency on Saturdays. The Saturday-only service to Chicago starts a couple of weeks before the daily flights, and ends a couple of weeks after.

The routes are already flown by other carriers, so for the heck of it, I played around with some online timetables to see the increase in capacity that the new service would be providing:

jan181

Anchorage to O’Hare is interesting, as it is a new route for American this summer as well (like United’s, the service is seasonal). One benefit for American’s new service, is that because of their partnership with Alaska, their new Chicago service carries Alaska’s code.

What I found to be very interesting, however, is the new San Francisco service, just from a scheduling perspective. The Denver and Chicago flights are timed pretty close to those of the competitors, but San Francisco is different. Alaska’s current nonstop service takes place overnight,  while United’s is during the day. That might just be the best way it fit into the schedule, as it appears one 757 flies ORD-ANC-SFO, while another flies SFO-ANC-ORD. I guess I’m wondering if the different timing will give one airline an advantage over the other.

But Anchorage has certainly been getting some nice boosts in service of late. Awhile back US Airways announced seasonal service to Philadelphia, and last week Continental announced seasonal service to Portland.

Southwest Gets Aggressive with Denver Promotion

Published
by
Dan Webb
on January 5, 2010
in Frontier and Southwest
. 2 Comments

This week, Southwest celebrates four years in Denver – and it has certainly been an interesting market to follow. While there has been interesting discussion (especially during Southwest’s bid for Frontier) about how profitable the city has been for the carrier, Southwest has nevertheless grown it operation there very quickly. In a relatively short time period, Denver has become one of the airline’s biggest markets with over 130 daily departures.

It’s not uncommon for Southwest to have special promotions for events like anniversaries, and Denver is no different. But while a large number of Southwest’s city-specific promotions have involved bonus Rapid Rewards credits, Southwest is instead promoting its Business Select product by offering a free roundtrip for Colorado residents that purchase a Business Select roundtrip from Denver.

For those who don’t recall, Business Select is a fully refundable fare that includes other perks such as priority boarding, a free drink (whatever isn’t complimentary, i.e. alcohol), extra Rapid Rewards credit, and priority check-in and security screening where available.

Clearly, Southwest is trying to build a loyal base of business travelers from Denver and the surrounding metro. But, personally, I see this primarily as a shot at Frontier, specifically its Classic Plus fare.

jan5

Photo credit: Chris Weyer.

Continue reading ‘Southwest Gets Aggressive with Denver Promotion’

Midwest Restarting SFO and RDU Service from MKE

Published
by
Dan Webb
on November 12, 2009
in Frontier, Midwest and Republic
. 1 Comment

Midwest announced service to San Francisco and Raleigh from Milwaukee earlier this week, which were routes eliminated by the airline in September of last year.

nov12

Photo credit: Chris Weyer. Used with permission.

Last year, Midwest had to cut many routes in September when the airline eliminated its MD-80 fleet. Their 717s didn’t have the range to get to the West Coast, so service to San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle from Milwaukee was eliminated, though service to the latter three was maintained through Kansas City. A few regional destinations were axed , and Raleigh was one of them. Unlike San Francisco, Raleigh lost all of its service.

Thanks to new fleet flexibility, Midwest can get to the West Coast again with Republic E190s and Frontier A319s. The Los Angeles service was originally flown with an E190, but is now flown with a Frontier A319. The daily San Francisco flight, which launches on April 19, will also be operated by an A319. Midwest will be competing with AirTran in the market.

Meanwhile, service to Raleigh will begin on April 1, with two daily flights from Milwauke. Service will be operated by Republic E170s. There is currently no competition on the route.

It’s certainly been interesting/fun to watch Republic work on Frontier and Midwest. The two airlines are facing strong competition in both Denver and Milwaukee, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens next. Nevertheless, it’s nice to see Midwest restore its route map.

The Flexibility of Republic

Published
by
Dan Webb
on October 29, 2009
in Frontier, Midwest and Republic
. 6 Comments

I’ve written before about the flexibility Republic now has with Frontier and Midwest. For example, some Frontier A319s will begin operating for Midwest out of MKE and some Republic E190s that have operated for Midwest are off to Denver. Well, now some aircraft will be used for both Midwest and Frontier – on the same day!

oct29

Photo credit: JetPhotos user Fokker Aircraft. Used with permission.

Last week, Frontier announced an experiment: seasonal service from Oklahoma City to both Orlando and Tampa. The schedules just didn’t seem to make sense to me, as I couldn’t find any other E190 flights out of any of those cities. I just chalked it up to me missing something obvious (quite often the case ;) ), but an announcement from Midwest cleared everything out. Yesterday, Midwest issued a press release announcing seasonal service from Omaha to Orlando and Tampa, which was very interesting.

Let’s look at the Orlando flying, for example. The E190 will start its day flying from Omaha to Orlando for Midwest. It will then fly to Oklahoma City and back, but for Frontier. Then it’ll fly back to Omaha for Midwest. On other days, it’ll be the same, except with Tampa instead of Orlando. Of course, the flights are operated by Republic crews for those carriers.

For some reason, it just amazes me what Republic can do with the two airlines at the same time.

Frontier Leaves Bankruptcy

Published
by
Dan Webb
on October 5, 2009
in Frontier, Midwest and Republic
. 2 Comments

Last week, Frontier Airlines emerged from bankruptcy as it becomes part of a the Republic Airways family, presenting some interesting opportunities and threats for both Frontier and  Republic.

oct5

While Frontier is certainly a stronger carrier than it was before, Denver is still a very competitive market. While many have reported that Frontier has performed better than Southwest in Denver, Southwest is still a strong competitor that has continued to grow in the market. It will be interesting to see how Southwest continues to develop its Denver operation after it failed to acquire Frontier.

Like always, United remains as a rival in the market. One has to wonder about the nature of Republic’s relationship with United right now. Its subsidiaries Chautauqua and Shuttle America operate E145s and E170s (respectively) for United Express. There are  even some Denver routes that have service from both Shuttle America and Frontier! Continue reading ‘Frontier Leaves Bankruptcy’

Awkward Moment?

Published
by
Dan Webb
on August 28, 2009
in Frontier and Southwest
. 1 Comment

From my trip this week, at Midway on Sunday:

aug28

“I’m sorry we couldn’t be together, it wasn’t you, it was me.
We can still hang out, right?”

Republic, Frontier, and Southwest: More Questions Than Answers

Published
by
Dan Webb
on August 14, 2009
in Frontier, Republic and Southwest
. 4 Comments

As you’ve probably all heard, Republic ended up getting Frontier in the end, and to be honest, that’s not the result I expected. I did write about this topic last evening, but I posted about 15 minutes after the press releases came out. Now, I’ve had some time to formulate some more thoughts, and here they are, in no particular order:

Why did Southwest wait so long?

Southwest submitted its nonbinding bid very close to the deadline. Why? I can understand the strategy behind waiting for the last minute to evaluate the playing field, surprise a competitor, give that competitor less time to respond, etc. But why wait until the last minute, especially when Southwest said they were looking at Frontier for awhile? If Southwest submitted its nonbinding bid a couple of weeks earlier, and the pilot unions had more time to talk to one another, could they have found a suitable agreement?

What is Republic’s long-term plan?

Republic already made an interesting move when they went mainline by acquiring Midwest, but Frontier is a whole different animal. (Get it? OK, sorry, moving on…) First, Frontier has a much larger fleet with 51 Airbus aircraft, a mix of A318s, A319s, and A320s. Second, Republic will now be competing head-to-head with United in many markets. Republic does flying for United with its Shuttle America and Chautauqua subsidiaries – what does this mean for their relationship going forward? Will Republic order more A320-family aircraft for Frontier? How aggressive will Republic be with Frontier? Could the carrier be expanded out of a city other than Denver in the future?

Frontier and Midwest?

Frontier and Midwest have already becoming codeshare partners. According to Aviation Week, a Republic executive “squashed the notion that Republic’s deals to acquire both Frontier and Midwest are part of some grand plan,” I’m still wondering. What does “Now, we have to turn our attention to the important work of integrating two great brands: Frontier and Midwest Airlines,” really mean? (That is a comment from Republic CEO Bryan Bedford.) Is it something as benign as “welcome to Republic,” or could something more be happening? Or maybe I’m just reading into that statement too much. :D

How does Southwest deal with Frontier now?

It’s been reported many times that Frontier has held up against Southwest, and perhaps has been even more financially successful in Denver. How will Southwest try to compete now? I think that answer is probably determined at least in part by Republic’s plans.

What does United think?

Despite what Southwest was trying to say how their move would increase competition, I have to think that United’s kind of bummed about this one – now they’re stuck with two major competitors.

A hint of future (domestic) markets for Southwest?

When they were going to buy Frontier, Southwest was interested in maintaining service to both ATL and DCA. Are they still interested in both? Are they willing to buy DCA slots from another carrier?

Does Southwest want a regional operation?

When Southwest submitted its nonbinding bid, they didn’t have a whole lot to say about Frontier’s Lynx subsidiary, but that changed on Monday, when Southwest was pretty excited about it and even seemed open to the idea of expanding it. Is Southwest still interested in some kind of a regional carrier?

What puts Southwest back in growth mode now?

It was said that this move would put Southwest back into growth mode, in fact I think the phrase that was used was “rapid growth mode.” What now? Southwest has been adding cities to the route map this year (MSP, LGA, BOS, MKE), but that growth has occurred without expanding the fleet. Southwest has more 737s on order next year – what will they do with them? This year’s new cities all have a relatively low number of flights – will Southwest want to expand those? (Though expanding LGA would require finding more slots.)

Is there potential for Southwest doing its own international service?

Southwest sounded interested in maintaining Frontier’s Mexico flights, which would have Southwest flying internationally for the first time. Having WestJet and Volaris potentially doing all transborder flying has been a contentious issue with Southwest pilots, and the codeshare has been listed as one reason their TA was voted down. What’s Southwest’s international strategy now?

Republic Gets Frontier

Published
by
Dan Webb
on August 13, 2009
in Frontier and Southwest
. 4 Comments

More on this tomorrow, for sure, but a couple of press releases just hit my inbox about the deal – Republic has won the auction for Frontier.

Color me surprised. I really thought Southwest would have this one in the bag. And they did, at least from a financial perspective. If it came down purely to the cash, I’m sure Southwest could’ve gone further than Republic.

But the issue was labor. According to the Southwest press release:

One of the contingencies in Southwest’s proposal was that labor groups from the two airlines would need to reach an agreement on how the two Pilot Unions (SWAPA and FAPA) would work together. Despite a good faith and diligent effort by all involved, including the top leadership of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) and the Frontier Airlines Pilots Association (FAPA), who labored long into the night, the two unions were not able to come to an agreement before the auction deadline. As a result, Southwest’s bid was deemed unacceptable.

According to this article from the Dallas Morning News, the Frontier pilots were offered job protection and a 40 percent raise, but the big issue was seniority, which is a factor in every merger. At this point, it looks like the plan was that the Frontier pilots would be on the bottom of the seniority list.

Also from the Southwest press release: “Southwest was not willing to remove the need for the two Pilot Unions to reach agreement. Southwest says its Culture and relationships with its Employees are too important to compromise.” Interesting.

Meanwhile, this quote from Republic CEO Bryan Bedford in a company press release was pretty interesting:

Now, we have to turn our attention to the important work of integrating two great brands: Frontier and Midwest Airlines, which enjoy strong loyalty in Denver and Milwaukee.

That made me go “hmmm.”

So, in conclusion, Republic just picked up a mainline carrier at a cheap price, and it’s role in the industry has greatly changed. As for effects on Southwest, I think the company has missed out on a great opportunity here, and now has a strong competitor to face in Denver to boot.

Anyway, more thoughts on this tomorrow.