Frontier Trims Flights at Milwaukee Hub as Parent Republic Hunts for Buyer

[bluesideup1]

Frontier Airlines will cut daily departures from Milwaukee by 44 percent to drop unprofitable flights as parent Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (RJET) prepares to sell or spin off the carrier.

Frontier will end non-stop service to six cities by mid- April as departures from Milwaukee are reduced to 18 from 32 a day, Lindsey Carpenter, a spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview today.

Republic is close to naming an adviser to help divest Frontier, which it bought out of bankruptcy in 2009. Frontier faced competition in Milwaukee from Southwest Airlines Co., the biggest low-fare carrier. The city had served as a Frontier hub since Republic bought Midwest Airlines in 2009 and combined the two carriers under the Frontier name.

“We’ve been incurring significant losses on our flights out of Milwaukee,” Carpenter said. “We can’t continue to do that if we want to stay a viable airline.”

Frontier is still assessing how many employees will be affected by the changes and hopes to offer them other jobs with the airline, she said. Midwest’s Milwaukee departures peaked at 150 a day in 2007.

The carrier no longer will fly non-stop from Milwaukee to Dallas-Fort Worth, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Newark and Grand Rapids, Michigan. The cuts come as the airline expands flights from its main base in Denver.

Republic fell 2.2 percent to $5.87 at the close in New York. The shares have risen 71 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mary Schlangenstein in Dallas at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ed Dufner at [email protected]

 

[Captain Morgan]

Retreat to Denver, regroup, go on the offensive. This should've been done a long time ago. Midwest Airlines has been an anchor weight for both Republic and Frontier. They need to just kill it.

 

[B52GUNNER]

Let it finally die by itself. They will probably blame someone else.

 

[Captain Morgan]

Let it finally die by itself. They will probably blame someone else.

They've wrecked/postponed more careers through their misguided anger and greed on both sides of the fence, Republic and Frontier. The icing on the cake is that they never really brought anything to the table, but they feel as if they're entitled to the most. Hold on, let me grab a kleenex, Kimberly-Clark brand of course; "The Milwaukee Experiment" is finally coming to an end.

 

[Jetjockey]

Retreat to Denver, regroup, go on the offensive. This should've been done a long time ago. Midwest Airlines has been an anchor weight for both Republic and Frontier. They need to just kill it.

Yeah, I'm sure SWA and UAL will welcome the competition with open arms......and lots of seats on duplicate routes.

 

[Grey Ghost]

I hope the whole Frontier thing completely FAILS!!!!! Karma is a bitch WANGER!!!!!!

 

[Propsync]

Retreat to Denver, regroup, go on the offensive. This should've been done a long time ago. Midwest Airlines has been an anchor weight for both Republic and Frontier. They need to just kill it.

I would disagree. Midwest was a great opportunity. They got an established hub on the cheap with little competition, and didn't do anything with it. Midwest was mismanaged and lasted 25 years. What's Bedford's excuse?

Bedford missed the boat on MKE. Renaming a convention center and putting a couple soundbites out is not continuing a 'heritage'. His lack of loyalty to a 'simple' Midwestern town was his undoing. I would have hired a few objective ex-Midwest people to figure out a way to make it work. Instead, they'll retreat back to a 3-way battle. Sounds like fun.

 

[N1atEcon]

I agree. Midwest had a nice niche and a loyal following. I spoke to an Ex midwest gate agent last week. She said all Bedford did was muck up a good thing. And the retreat, regroup comment is moronic. That is the last place I would want to be digging in for a fight for my survival. UAL and SWA have tons of cash and can play hardball for a long long time.

 

[brokedash]

The OP article qoutes a spokesperson saying, "We’ve been incurring significant losses on our flights out of Milwaukee,” Why don't they admit their bleeding green over all of the F9 operation?

 

[Captain Morgan]

Yeah, I'm sure SWA and UAL will welcome the competition with open arms......and lots of seats on duplicate routes.

It doesn't matter where Frontier goes, SWA will follow. It's a fact that SWA doesn't want Frontier in existance to be begin with. At least in Denver there is an established market. It's home turf. United tolerates Frontier because United would rather run RJs out of Denver and hold it's place that actually focus on it.

 

[Captain Morgan]

I hope the whole Frontier thing completely FAILS!!!!! Karma is a bitch WANGER!!!!!!

So by hoping that Frontier fails you've just done yourself in. Nice!

 

[Captain Morgan]

I agree. Midwest had a nice niche and a loyal following. I spoke to an Ex midwest gate agent last week. She said all Bedford did was muck up a good thing. And the retreat, regroup comment is moronic. That is the last place I would want to be digging in for a fight for my survival. UAL and SWA have tons of cash and can play hardball for a long long time.

Wow! You spoke to a Ex-Midwest gate agent, and she had fond things to say about Milwaukee and Midwest Airlines and bad things to say about Bedford?!? You don't say?!? History is viewed greatly through rose-colored glasses.

 

[Captain Morgan]

We need to all look at the reality of what's going on. MKE was a leftover from Midwest which was a dying airline in the form it was in. With 59 aircraft and various contracted RJ's Frontier was a chaotic mess at best. Siegal was hired to clean up the airline to attract investors/buyers. He's doing his job by axing MKE and restoring Frontier to simplicity. The only loss of service I think is a mistake is Aspen. How can you be "Colorado's airline" without Aspen? I do think operating the Q400 was expensive and operating a seperate type primarily for one destination was rediculous. They need to contract with colgan for the Q400 flying and be done with it. One thing we can all agree on is that BB didn't have a clue or direction and he's ruined 2.5 airlines.

 

[Grey Ghost]

We need to all look at the reality of what's going on. MKE was a leftover from Midwest which was a dying airline in the form it was in. With 59 aircraft and various contracted RJ's Frontier was a chaotic mess at best. Siegal was hired to clean up the airline to attract investors/buyers. He's doing his job by axing MKE and restoring Frontier to simplicity. The only loss of service I think is a mistake is Aspen. How can you be "Colorado's airline" without Aspen? I do think operating the Q400 was expensive and operating a seperate type primarily for one destination was rediculous. They need to contract with colgan for the Q400 flying and be done with it. One thing we can all agree on is that BB didn't have a clue or direction and he's ruined 2.5 airlines.

Amen, brother!!! thats what I meant to say.... In reality, I hope evreything works out for F9 and we can all just go our separate ways and be done with it! I'm just tired of hearing the bitching and complaining from both sides, thats all!

 

[USMC319]

The OP article qoutes a spokesperson saying, "We’ve been incurring significant losses on our flights out of Milwaukee,” Why don't they admit their bleeding green over all of the F9 operation?

Because that would be a false statement. The Denver operation, and in particular, the Airbus operation IS profitable. Its been profitable for the most part since Menke reorganized it in '09. The killer to Frontier has been the the small airplanes, the E170s, the E140s, the E135s. Trying to resurrect a once great but now dead airline (Midwest) with commuter airplanes and service in their bloodbath operation in Milwaukee. The E190 held its own but didn't contribute much to the bottom line. Frontier became the airline for the unemployed ERJs and it about took them under with their horribly high CASMs. Now Frontier is cutting back to its profitable core, which is the Airbus and Denver with a whole bunch of profitable contract flying on top.

 

[B52GUNNER]

Because that would be a false statement. The Denver operation, and in particular, the Airbus operation IS profitable. Its been profitable for the most part since Menke reorganized it in '09. The killer to Frontier has been the the small airplanes, the E170s, the E140s, the E135s. Trying to resurrect a once great but now dead airline (Midwest) with commuter airplanes and service in their bloodbath operation in Milwaukee. The E190 held its own but didn't contribute much to the bottom line. Frontier became the airline for the unemployed ERJs and it about took them under with their horribly high CASMs. Now Frontier is cutting back to its profitable core, which is the Airbus and Denver with a whole bunch of profitable contract flying on top.


Those 145's 170's and 190's are what has kept Frontier in business for the past year and a half. Without the money siphoned off from them to keep them going it would have been gone long ago

 

[Bolo]

[/QUOTE]Those 145's 170's and 190's are what has kept Frontier in business for the past year and a half. Without the money siphoned off from them to keep them going it would have been gone long ago[/QUOTE]

Frontier has also been there to keep a bunch of pilots at RAH employed as well. Without us where would those RJ's have gone? Little hint: Desert! It goes both ways Buddy!

 

[USMC319]

Those 145's 170's and 190's are what has kept Frontier in business for the past year and a half. Without the money siphoned off from them to keep them going it would have been gone long ago

Well there seems to be some confusion on your part here. The E190s only flew under the Frontier and Midwest brands because no other airline scope would allow it otherwise. They were neither helpful nor hurtful to the F9 bottom line. The EMB 135, 140, 145, and 170s that flew under the Frontier brand were horrendous money losers for Frontier. They would have been losers at $40/bbl oil, but they became the death knell for Frontier at $100/bbl oil. They simply don't work in the LCC model. Now, if what you meant to say is; "the profits generated by RAH Fee for Departure contracts with Legacy Airlines provided the Holding Company the ability to invest in Frontier and thwart the South West Airlines purchase offer at the BK auction", then I guess I could buy that statement.

In any event, if it weren't for the Frontier business, there would have been massive furloughs at RAH's commuter airline businesses.

 

[B52GUNNER]

Haha I love it. Frontier is bankrupt. Republic buys them out of bankruptcy, and pumps massive amounts of money into it to prop it up, but Frontier is Republics Savior.

 

[USMC319]

Haha I love it. Frontier is bankrupt. Republic buys them out of bankruptcy, and pumps massive amounts of money into it to prop it up, but Frontier is Republics Savior.

I guess if you are that dense you could come to that conclussion. It requires a little higher level of thinking to understand the concepts that your CEO, the company's advisors, and the rest of the airline industry analysts are trying to explain to you. It's a much bigger picture and not as simpleton as your previous quotes imply. I suppose they don't teach that at ERAU these days.

 

[B52GUNNER]

We will see what "The big picture" turns out to be. So far it has just been providing substandard pay, and terrible work rules.

 

[Captain Morgan]

I hope your big picture and our big picture both improve substantially however having come from the opposite side of the fence I know for a fact that the 145's are a dying breed. I would have certainly fared a worse fate had I stayed on at that side of the house. Fortunately for me, everyone has this notion that everything that is said by BB is negative and is a scare tactic. While I'm sure BB plays the downturns into his favor, I've always felt that with regard to his prediction/observations of the 50 seat market, he's been right on. Everyone needs to recognize that we both benefitted from this merger in some sort of way. Frontier gained the aid they needed to exit BK and Republic needed a home for 145/170 and 190's exclusively. Unfortunately, like a Hollywood wedding, it's time to part ways.

 

[Bolo]

We will see what "The big picture" turns out to be. So far it has just been providing substandard pay, and terrible work rules.

Obviously you are talking about the RAH substandard pay and work rules? Right?

 

[USMC319]

I can tell you what the "Big Picture" looks like from my perspective. I have no illusions that Frontier pilot's will have any significant improvements in pay or benefits until we eventually become whatever it is we become when we grow up. Frontier has always provided an excellent product and service, unfortunately they have always been severely under funded. Our hope is that the divestiture by RAH will finally fix that. Maybe it will or maybe it won't. In the meantime we enjoy one of the better CBAs in the industry and our pay is on par with our peers and better than UAL and USAir at the moment.

On the CPA side of the house I am not so optimistic. The 50 seat business is dead. All the other commuter airlines are restructuring or going broke. If your new contract ends up being as good as the one you have now, I'll be surprised. It's a crappy environment to be negotiating in for sure. I sincerely wish you the best of luck.

 

[UnstableAviator]

On the CPA side of the house I am not so optimistic. The 50 seat business is dead. All the other commuter airlines are restructuring or going broke. If your new contract ends up being as good as the one you have now, I'll be surprised. It's a crappy environment to be negotiating in for sure. I sincerely wish you the best of luck.

Well, it can't really get much worse since we're already the bottom of the barrel, so to speak. For your sake at F9, I hope there is a separation and you guys get to keep on keepin' on. This whole integration, disolution/replacement of YX, and IMSL has been an awkward situation for many of us native RAH'ers.

The idea our management had of running 37-50 seaters for an LCC operation in a secondary market bloodbath is laughable. BB&Co proved their ineptness with Mokulele, and carried forth the same incompetency with F9. I think many of us here can say this whole mess has gone exactly as we knew it would; poorly.

RAH...the worst in the biz. We've closed 16 pilot bases in the last 7 years, just for an example.

 

[Wesb737fo]

Hmm.. Interesting points. Not sure what happens from here, but, the way I remember it was that after Bedford moved into MKE as a stand alone operation, his costs per seat mile was astronomical. Over 15cents per seat mile with the 35 and 50 seaters. The larger RJs began coming in and the purchase of F9 was supposed to bring costs in line with AirTran and SWA. Obviously this strategy hasn't worked. Republic was essentially two airlines, Fixed Fee and stand alone. Yes the fixed fee made money because you don't pay for gas. Stand alone lost money because it's a tough market to make money flying rjs at $100/bl oil. F9 has a tough go against SWA in Den and AAI in MKE. Small airline against the 400 lb gorilla. Maybe the best thing is for F9 is a merger with VA and/ or Spirit. Republic can go back to all fee for departure flying.

 

[embraerjetpilot]

Nope. B52 has it right...

What frontier is soon to be is just a mainline version of go jets and freedom I

 

[Captain Morgan]

Nope. B52 has it right...

What frontier is soon to be is just a mainline version of go jets and freedom I

Oh brother, nice drive by post.

 

[boomlrd]

Maybe Spirit will buy Frontier on the cheap.

 

[freightrash]

Those 145's 170's and 190's are what has kept Frontier in business for the past year and a half. Without the money siphoned off from them to keep them going it would have been gone long ago[/QUOTE]

Frontier has also been there to keep a bunch of pilots at RAH employed as well. Without us where would those RJ's have gone? Little hint: Desert! It goes both ways Buddy![/QUOTE]

no, it would have gone to PHX, PDX and SEA