WX in Den, how's Frontier doing

[Skaff]

With DEN being closed for over 45 hours last week, and then more bad WX in DEN now, how are they staying alive financially?

 

[Megalops]

How are you staying alive financially?

 

[HighSpeedClimb]

With DEN being closed for over 45 hours last week, and then more bad WX in DEN now, how are they staying alive financially?

The airport may have been closed, but all those pax eventually had to get to their destination, hence F6 flew them that's how.

 

[AA717driver]

How are you staying alive financially?

I wasn't laid off last week. TC

 

[F9 Driver]

We've strapped plows to the 318s and are tasked to keep DIA ramps clear.

It pays better than flying pax so don't worry about us!

The storm(s) aren't helping our bottom line, but on the bright side they give management a good excuse to show the loss they predicted earlier.

 

[Fit59]

"Get me Joe Patroni!"

 

[TOGA]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm sitting in MCI instead of doing my three scheduled flights today. This round of cancellations seems a bit knee jerk to me. One of the big wigs stated that the first storm cost us at least $5m. Do we have insurance for this sort of thing? I can only hope this will give our COO something to brandish as he pushes for more advancements in technology and communication. Also, this seems to evidence our need for another hub.

So, F9 Driver, your friends said "wear the fox hat", eh? Was that you that had to explain that to my dumb ass in recurrent a few weeks ago? Nonetheless, I like your avatar.

Good one, Fit59!

 

[StaySeated]

I am bracing for a devastating quarterly report. Prior to the first storm, Frontier was predicting a loss as high as 17 cents a share (around $6 million). Throw in two days of no ops during the busiest weekend of the year and then this weeks storm and I wouldn't be surprised if they posted a loss in excess of $15 million.

Yes, the people that had tickets and chose not to fly last weekend can still use those tickets in the future, but Frontier might not get paid until they fly. It depends on how the traveler paid for the ticket. That is also why frontier hawks those credit cards like crazy in terminal A. They have an agreement with MBNA or whoever backs the cards and the holdback is very low (less than 25%) so Frontier gets 75% percent of the purchase price of the ticket immediately and the rest when the traveler shows up and gets on a plane. If joe shmoe traveler bought the ticket with this united visa to get double dip on the frequent flier miles than frontier gets nada or close to nada until he gets on one of our planes. Combine that type of holdback with two days worth of cancelled flights that were booked around 97% full and you will see a major, major loss for the quarter.

On a side note, when I commuted into work last Friday I was AMAZED at the lack of snow at the airport. Every airport ops employee should be required to observe a heavy snow day at ORD before the next event at DIA. One important piece of equipment I saw missing were the snow melters. Each ramp should have had one right in the center, instead each ramp had one or two lanes surrounded by three feet of snow in the middle. Was this the first time it snowed since the airport opened?

 

[Be 23]

Was this the first time it snowed since the airport opened?

Yes, sort of. In Denver it hasn't snowed this much in this amount of time since 1930 -- or maybe it was 1913 -- according to the tv.

 

[JetMonkey]

Didn't the first day DIA opened back in 95 was during a snow storm?

 

[Flynfish]

This certianly isn't the biggest storm in the last 20-25 years. I remember a few years ago,some of the Broncos were taken to the airport by snowmobile.

 

[Fins Up]

We've strapped plows to the 318s and are tasked to keep DIA ramps clear.

It pays better than flying pax so don't worry about us!

Strap the plows to the front of a British Airways plane and push all the snow into the overrun.

 

[Stifler's Mom]

Spoke to a Frontier crew a few days ago, and they told me how the airport was proactive and plowed the employee parking lot. Unfortunately, as a result they buried everybody's cars in feet of snow.

 

[gt1900]

Wasnt the storm in 03 worse?? I thought it snowed near 45 inches at the airport... It wasn't back to back storms, but I thought it was the worst.

 

[Beer&Brauts]

Spoke to a Frontier crew a few days ago, and they told me how the airport was proactive and plowed the employee parking lot. Unfortunately, as a result they buried everybody's cars in feet of snow.

Yeah, they're very good at doing that! Was there a few days after the storm and had to shovel a place for my car, they hadn't bothered to plow empty spaces so people could park - it was a complete mess. I'm glad we're paying some of the highest fees ($36/month) of any employee lot in the country for such excellent service!

 

[Be 23]

Wasnt the storm in 03 worse?? I thought it snowed near 45 inches at the airport... It wasn't back to back storms, but I thought it was the worst.

I think this is one of those situations where you have to define carefully what you mean by worst. The talking heads on tv have to be specific to make that argument for this past couple of weeks.

My perspective is that it is certainly worse than '03 because I was at HOU then and COS now.32

 

[Big Duke Six]

Naw, '03 WAS worse. I was flying freight then, and we were stuck out for at least 3 days, or maybe it was 4. It was most of the week anyway. They may have had the concourse ramps open first, but the freight ramp was closed for 3-4 days.

I agree our snow crews, while well-intentioned, have much to learn.

TOGA: "Where's the freight ramp", you ask? Did I hear a "Wear the Fox Hat!" there? Thought so

Nice seeing you today!

 

[Devil Dawg]

Seems to me everyone has overlooked the very important question of how our friends at the United airline are doing during this storm. Last I checked they were the biggest show in town.

 

[Hutchman]

Seems to me everyone has overlooked the very important question of how our friends at the United airline are doing during this storm. Last I checked they were the biggest show in town.

United has a large network. They can route people around DEN. Frontier has no other place to route people. I think it effects Frontier much more than UAL.

 

[M3pilot]

From what I've heard, this was one of the biggest storms on record. However, what complicated matters is the fact that it was also a blizzard. Comparing this storm to those at other airports is like comparing apples to oranges. O'Hare's storms rarely enjoy the added component of gale winds, making it much more difficult to keep the snow from accumulating. That fact notwithstanding, DEN also occupies 50+ square miles of real estate. In addition, the airport motor pool has an unbelievable compliment of equipment. Problem was, the airport authority didn't exactly have the staffing prepared and on property to operate said equipment. They could have, but they didn't...