Well, this was the day that many – industry observers, passengers, and most importantly, employees – have been waiting for. Not surprisingly, Republic Airways has announced that it will be consolidating the Frontier and Midwest brands under the Frontier name.
Photo Credit: Midwest Airlines.
Why does that make the most sense? Well, let’s be honest – Frontier is the larger carrier of the two right now, and probably has the better brand recognition. In addition, the Midwest brand has slowly been degraded over the years. The airline that used to be known for business-class flights out of Milwaukee is not what it used to be. So I think it’s better to move on with the Frontier name. That being said, Republic will have to work at building up brand recognition. Frontier is still a “hometown” airline much like Midwest.
So what will the product look like? Well, we don’t have that many details at this point. But, Midwest fliers do not have to worry about the cookies – those will be brought to the entire merged airline. My guess is that the cookie represents an easy way for the airline to differentiate itself from competitors. Meanwhile, the Frontier fliers will be happy to know that the animal tails will be sticking around. And a new aircraft will feature a badger – the Wisconsin state animal – on its tail. And of course, the airlines’ will be merging their frequent flyer programs.
In terms of inflight entertainment, LiveTV will remain on the Airbus fleet. The airline is “still exploring other in-flight entertainment options and plan to have some form available in each of our aircraft by 2011.” That’s interesting – I wonder what they mean by “each of our aircraft.” Does that include the E135/E145 aircraft that are currently based in Milwaukee? We’ve seen other airlines put IFE on the E170/E175/E190 already, but not on the ERJs, as far as I know. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Frontier ends up with internet service at some point. 2011 is kind of an ambitious goal, and Aircell has be priding itself on very fast installations. But that’s just my guess, here.
What’s the timeline here? The two airlines plan to merge their operations – everything in the back of the house – by November of this year. So one would guess that once that happens we’ll probably see travelers booking all of their flights on one website. The complete branding integration should be completed on October 2011.
So now a huge step is out of the way – at least the airline has a single brand name to use, which I think is the right move. But their are challenges ahead. Integrating the IT systems of the two airlines is no easy task. There are still labor issues to sort out. The company needs to get all of its employees behind the new brand to ensure that customers receive a customer experience.
That being said, the company has an exciting few months, with more aircraft arriving and many new routes launching over the coming weeks. I am the most interested in how the airline develops its two hubs. We’ve already seen some moves there with Frontier announcing Denver service to some long-time Midwest cities. And plus the airline has that smaller third hub in Kansas City that is seeing a bit of growth as well. And plus, there’s that CSeries order to think about.
Anyway, this is a very exciting day. So let’s enjoy it. But of course we’ll all be having fun watching two airlines become one. Meanwhile, you can find the official website about the integration here.
On a side note, I have to laugh a bit about the whole fleet being repainted in Frontier colors. Take N874RW, an Embraer 170. The aircraft was wearing Frontier colors when Republic was operating some aircraft before Frontier’s bankruptcy. Then, it eventually ended up in a Midwest scheme.
So those are my initial thoughts for now. But I’m sure I’ll be writing more about this soon!
Leave your guesses in the comments!
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