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Frontier Airlines Tries To Diversify Away From Denver . . . Again

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inflightboi175

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Posts
151
Since the dawn of time (or maybe not quite that long), Frontier has searched for a way to diversify beyond its Denver hub. There have been plenty of efforts, but now it appears that Florida is the latest attempt. Frontier will open up flights between Oklahoma and Florida.
In the past, we’ve seen Frontier try to get away from Denver on a few occasions. There was the ill-fated effort in LA that saw flights to places like Cabo, San Francisco, Kansas City, St Louis and Minneapolis. That failed. There was also the very small mini-hub effort in Memphis that went to Vegas, Orlando, and Ft Lauderdale. Northwest killed that one quite efficiently.
The only attempt to go beyond Denver that has worked has been flights to Mexico. The network had grown to connect many heartland cities to Mexican beach destinations that were already served from Denver. The network had been pared down as demand dropped, but recently there have been new flights added again.
The Florida move appears to be similar to the Mexico strategy, so I imagine it has a decent chance of success. On January 15, Frontier will start flying 4 to 5 times a week from Oklahoma City to Orlando and twice a week from Oklahoma City to Tampa. These will be flown by ~100 seat Embraer 190 aircraft - something that is only possible now that Republic can move airplanes around between its subsidiaries.
So do I think this is the beginning of a new Oklahoma City hub? No, I doubt it. This just seems to be opportunistic. Nobody flies these routes nonstop, unlike in the Memphis and LAX efforts, so with small enough airplanes and few enough flights per week, it might just work. Seems similar to the Allegiant Air strategy except it’s not small market to big leisure market. It’s mid-size market to big leisure market. Those planes are a lot more expensive so they’ll need to get some good revenue to make it work.
It if does, I imagine we’ll see this spread to other Frontier cities.


http://industry.bnet.com/travel/100...es-tries-to-diversify-away-from-denver-again/
 
Independence tried this with flights to Orlando and Tampa during the days when they didn't want to advertise or use sites like travelocity. Lasted about 4 months with 10 or 15 pax on 50 seat RJs. Will be interesting to see if this works. I'd say Bedford will be smart enough to advertise these flights and vary schedules based on loads.
 
It's amazing how Republic pilots think Bedford is the greatest guy in the world. He has zero experience actually running a real airline. He was excellent at signing contract agreements and screwing his pilot group at every turn, but the pilots still seem to love him. Who cares if 190 pay maxes out at $37/hour for first officers, Bedford still managed to get 190's so his pilots adore him. Rant over.
 
All 90% of the pilots care about is getting into the left seat of their respective aircraft. BB has afforded that to 1/2 the REP pilots and the other half are chomping at the bit and realize that they're hooked up with an airline that has always grown. The rest (pay etc) matters very little.
 
It's amazing how Republic pilots think Bedford is the greatest guy in the world. He has zero experience actually running a real airline. He was excellent at signing contract agreements and screwing his pilot group at every turn, but the pilots still seem to love him. Who cares if 190 pay maxes out at $37/hour for first officers, Bedford still managed to get 190's so his pilots adore him. Rant over.

I enjoy watching people that don't have the first clue about what it is like to work here comment on how the employees feel about BB and Republic. We have our Kool Aid drinkers, just like everybody else. But the majority of the employees understand Bedford is in this for Bedford, and nobody else. There are many who are ex TWA, Independence, ATA, and US Airways who have sacrificed just as much as anybody else in this business. Most have no illusions about this being an employee friendly company, and are not interested in staying here long term. We have bills to pay and families to feed. We have contracts and company policies that we have to follow, just like everybody else. All of those contracts have prohibitions against struck work and most would gladly refuse to fly struck work. But because certain employee groups failed to go on strike, we have no cause to refuse to work and lose our jobs. I guarantee every one of the bomb throwers on FI would do the same. We do not agree with everything the company does, but have no power stop it.

The changes in the last few months have many thinking about the long term, and working with our new employee groups to get better working conditions once all the integration is finished. We are all going to need to put our differences behind us, and work together to make this a good place to work when it is all finished.
 
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A very excited Rep gal was very enthusiastic about all that's going on.
"We bought them, they are lucky they have jobs........"
"I'm holding off biding to the 190 because of our 2 year seat lock......"
"I'll be left seat 319 before then....."
then she was trying to tell me the 319/320 options can't be deferred and they are firm deliveries.....(didn't understand the concept of options)
I just nodded my head, wanting to jab fork in my ears........
I hope "career expectations" comes into play when the arbitrator drafts his plan.
ie: Frontier=destination/career airline
Republic/Shuttle/Chautauqua=stepping stone or island of misfit toys
 
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She's not gonna get her hands on an Airbus, period end of conversation.
 
(bedford) He has zero experience actually running a real airline


two thoughts: you equate a quantity of a type of experience with the degree to which one might succeed. it seems he knows how to run a lemonade stand from where I sit since he keeps buying other failed airlines and making a boatload of money doing it.

second: you have no real experience in evaluating one's business acumen

no offense meant , but wouldn't you say he's a little sharper than most knives in the draw, or do you need a business "type" to qualify for success in our economy.
 

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