Frontier just announced 5 daily LAX--SFO and back

[General Lee]

Just saw it on Yahoo. Interesting choice. 5 daily Airbi flying between the two airports.


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[F9 Driver]

Frontier Brings Low Fares and Great Customer Service Back to the LAX-SFO Corridor With New Flights
Tuesday May 2, 12:00 pm ET
Frontier to Fly Five Times a Day Between Los Angeles and San Francisco, Fares Starting at Just $59, Free DirecTV

DENVER, May 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Frontier Airlines (Nasdaq: FRNT - News) will begin new, non-stop service between San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), beginning June 29, 2006. The new service will be offered five times daily between the two cities and all flights will utilize Frontier's new Airbus aircraft, with 33 inches of legroom and 24 channels of DirecTV, which will be offered free for on flights between San Francisco and Los Angeles through Labor Day (Sept. 4, 2006).
Today's announcement marks Frontier's first point-to-point service in California. In addition, Frontier is the only Low Cost Carrier (LCC) to serve the popular non-stop route between Los Angeles and San Francisco. John Happ, Frontier's Senior Vice President of Marketing and Planning, commented, "This is a great day for Frontier and for California as we provide a better and more cost-effective travel option to connect Southern and Northern California. We feel strongly that the San Francisco market is underserved for high-value, low fare service and there is clearly a strong business and leisure connection between these two cities. We are eager to begin service so that we can help bring low fares back to their proper Bay Area home ... San Francisco International Airport."

The news was shared with Californians this morning with two unique press conferences. In Los Angeles, Frontier announced the new service to San Francisco in conjunction with the Los Angeles Zoo, as part of Frontier's sponsorship of "Everyone Loves a Baby" month at the Zoo. After Happ joined Los Angeles Zoo Director, John Smith, in unveiling the Zoo's new baby giraffe, Raha, Smith noted, "With over 50 unique animals adorning each of their new aircraft, Frontier obviously understands how special an animal can be, and so we felt it very fitting that the Los Angeles Zoo should welcome Frontier and their new San Francisco service to our community, as we welcome Raha to our community.

"We appreciate Frontier's support of the Los Angeles community with their generous sponsorship of 'Everyone Loves a Baby' month, and we are confident that just as Raha will thrive here at the Zoo, so too will Frontier." To view Frontier's award-winning "A Whole Different Animal" TV commercials, please visit http://www.frontierairlines.com/about/commercials.asp.

In San Francisco, CEO Jeff Potter shared the news at a press conference at the San Francisco International Airport. Joining Potter was legendary San Francisco restaurateur, Perry Butler. Together, they announced that on the day of the new service, all Frontier passengers are welcome to have breakfast or lunch at Perry's, located right next to Gate 43, one of two new Frontier gates. In addition, patrons of all Perry's restaurants will be eligible to win a round trip ticket for two, which will be given away every day during the month of June.

The new service complements Frontier's seven daily flights between Los Angeles and Denver, and five daily flights between San Francisco and Denver. With the additional service Frontier is hiring 40 new employees in Los Angeles for a total of 70 employees and will utilize three common use gates in Terminal 3. In San Francisco, the Company will hire over 40 new employees for positions that were previously outsourced and the new flights will coincide with Frontier's move to its new gates, 41 and 43. Frontier intends to expand ticket counter space at both airports to between six and eight positions, including four kiosk or express check-in units.

"This new service from Frontier between SFO and LAX makes summer travel in California even more enticing," said San Francisco International Airport Director, John L. Martin. "Arriving or departing from SFO is an authentic San Francisco experience, from the fresh, local food and beverage options such as Perry's to on-site BART service that brings travelers downtown in less than 30 minutes. SFO's full range of services and amenities, combined with Frontier's great customer service and low fares, make for a great new option in travel between SFO and LAX."

The schedule for the new LAX-SFO service is as follows:



Los Angeles - San Francisco
Flight Number Departs Arrives Frequency
1927 7:15 a.m. 8:35 a.m. Daily
1929 8:15 a.m. 9:35 a.m. Daily
1913 12:30 p.m. 1:59 p.m. Daily
1917 4:50 p.m. 6:10 p.m. Daily
1921 9:00 p.m. 10:20 p.m. Daily

San Francisco - Los Angeles
Flight Number Departs Arrives Frequency
1920 6:10 a.m. 7:30 a.m. Daily*
1926 10:20 a.m. 11:40 a.m. Daily
1914 2:35 p.m. 3:55 p.m. Daily
1918 6:55 p.m. 8:15 p.m. Daily
1928 8:25 p.m. 9:45 p.m. Daily



All times given in local arrival or departure city times.
To celebrate the new service between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Frontier will offer special introductory fares as low as $59* each way. All sale fares are one-way, with 21-day advanced round-trip purchase required and must be purchased by 10:00 p.m. MDT, June 28, 2006 for travel on or after June 29, 2006. To make a reservation, customers can visit Frontier's Web site at www.frontierairlines.com, contact Frontier Airlines at 1-800-4321-FLY, or consult their professional travel agent.

* Fares shown are one-way travel on or after June 29, 2006. 21 day
advanced purchase is required. Tickets must be booked and paid for by
10:00PM MDT 6/28/06 or within 24 hours (whichever comes first). Fares
do not include passenger facilities fees of $9 roundtrip, the
September 11th Security Fee of $5 round-trip, or fees of $3.30 per
segment. A segment is defined as one takeoff and one landing. Other
restrictions may apply. Fare applies only to LAX-SFO non-stop service.
Non-stop service LAX-SFO starts June 29th, 2006.
Members of Frontier Airlines' mileage program, EarlyReturns® will receive double bonus miles for travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles through September 4, 2006. For free enrollment in the program, customers can visit Frontier's Web site at www.frontierairlines.com, pick up an EarlyReturns enrollment form at any Frontier airport counter, or call Frontier's EarlyReturns Service Center toll-free hotline at 866-26-EARLY or Frontier's reservations at 800-4321-FLY.

About Frontier

Currently in its 12th year of operations, Denver-based Frontier Airlines is the second largest jet service carrier at Denver International Airport, employing approximately 4,800 aviation professionals. With 51 aircraft and the youngest Airbus fleet in North America, Frontier offers 24 channels of DIRECTV® service in every seatback along with 33 inches of legroom in an all coach configuration. In conjunction with Frontier JetExpress operated by Horizon Air, Frontier operates routes linking its Denver hub to 56 destinations including 47 destinations in 29 states spanning the nation from coast to coast and to seven cities in Mexico. Frontier's maintenance and engineering department has received the Federal Aviation Administration's highest award, the Diamond Certificate of Excellence, in recognition of 100 percent of its maintenance and engineering employees completing advanced aircraft maintenance training programs, for seven consecutive years. In July 2005, Frontier ranked as one of the "Top 10 Domestic Airlines" as determined by readers of Travel & Leisure magazine. Frontier provides capacity information and other operating statistics on its Web site, which may be viewed at www.frontierairlines.com.

 

[coogebeachhotel]

Sounds like a financial suicide/keep Virgin on its toes move. When LCC's fight it is pure Springer

 

[mach none]

Didn't Frontier attempt flying from LAX a couple of years ago, only to retreat?

 

[Mugs]

The downgrade of Frontier (FRNT : frontier airlines holdings inc
brought the rating to underweight from overweight, and contributed to the stock's more than 3% decline on Tuesday. As a threat to Frontier's revenue, J.P. Morgan cited competition from United Airlines (UAUA :
ual corp <IMG class=pixelTracking height=1 width=1 border=0>UAUA36.01, +0.73, +2.1%) , which exited bankruptcy earlier this year. "We now forecast that Frontier will be the industry's least-profitable airline in 2007 (F2008), after JetBlue," wrote the J.P. Morgan analysts.

JetBlue also gets an underweight rating at J.P. Morgan, down from neutral, citing the shares' valuation. "It seems like a strange combination; the airline with the least profitability is also the most expensive stock we follow," the analysts wrote. J.P. Morgan expects JetBlue's revenue to grow less than the company itself expects. Meanwhile, established legacy carriers are defending their routes with cheap tickets to keep the low-fare carrier at bay.
The J.P. Morgan analysts also put a $100 price target on US Airways Group (LCC : US Airways Group Inc.
45.40, +1.72, +3.9%) stock by mid-year 2007, more than double the current price. The boosted price target is based on expectations the company's profit next year will range from $3.15 to $11.20. Shares of US Airways jumped 6.9% to $46.71 on Tuesday.

J.P. Morgan is a market maker for Frontier and JetBlue stock, and the firm has been involved in managing equity and or debt offerings from Southwest. J.P. Morgan has also done investment banking work for Southwest and expects to do more banking work with the carrier in the next three months, as well as JetBlue. Alaska Air Group, JetBlue, Southwest, US Airways and Frontier have been clients of J.P. Morgan, as well.

 

[coogebeachhotel]

Didn't Frontier attempt flying from LAX a couple of years ago, only to retreat?

Yeper

 

[F9 Driver]

I'll fly where they pay me to go...

I guess its just picking nits Mugs, but the downgrade came before the expansion announcement (not that it would have made much diference to JP Morgan. Hey, don't they own United? Not that market makers would ever do anything dishonest )

"Didn't Frontier attempt flying from LAX a couple of years ago, only to retreat?"
Yup - It was poorly executed with no marketing support in the markets served. I hear this should be "A whole different animal." Waaaay above my pay grade.

 

[mach none]

We shall see. Good luck.

You may need to change your signature line.

 

[F9 Driver]

Point taken! Yet another thing that doesn't make sense in this world.

Done.

 

[ATA For Now!]

I hope Frontier's Senior Vice President of Marketing and Planning John Happ has gotten his head out of his ass and learned something about either marketing or planning since he was fired from ATA last year.

He was one of the many that DIRECTLY contributed to the BK. I believe he came up with the PIE-SFO and PIE-LAX red eye idea and the EWR-SFO redeye and LGA-SFO only on Sat idea. I think at max I had 40 people on one of the PIE-LAX flights.

F9 has a pretty diverse route structure and a really nice operation so hopefully, Happ won't mess it up too bad before he's shown the door there also.

RV

 

[Beechnut]

Wasn't STL a focus city too? I was looking at their route map the other day and didn't see any connections out of STL.

Am I making this up?

S.

 

[Dave Benjamin]

Historically SFO-LAX has been a great route to lose money on. Lots of competition. It's always ripe for a price war.

 

[jtf]

STL is a focus city for AA. Frontier does DEN and I believe seasonal Cancun flights from STL.

 

[OffHot]

F9 guys/gals get ready to hold and hold and hold, main reason we left SFO. The money isn't worth the lost productivity time of the airframe.

 

[Larcifer]

We have quite a brain trust on Tower Rd. Nice thing is they won't get hurt when things go south, they'll just come to us looking for money to pay off there mistakes.

 

[ATA For Now!]

We have quite a brain trust on Tower Rd. Nice thing is they won't get hurt when things go south, they'll just come to us looking for money to pay off there mistakes.

That's exactly what Happ did at ATA....TWICE.

RV

 

[Shrek]

We have quite a brain trust on Tower Rd. Nice thing is they won't get hurt when things go south, they'll just come to us looking for money to pay off there mistakes.

WOW........you have it wrong my friend.....dead wrong. I will leave it at that.

 

[bvt1151]

Frontier's only problem is its marketing department. From what I can tell, the costs are in line, the Airbi are solid, the management is decent, and the employees are outstanding. It'd be a great place to work, if it weren't for that pesky marketing department making it so hard to make future plans (like will this airline be around in 5 years or not). No flame intended, but its unfortunate that one department can completely wipe out any cost and operational efficiencies the rest of the airline has been able to achieve.

SFO-LAX is a mistake. Nobody in either of those cities knows Frontier. Frequency is never a problem on that market, so if you just have to operate there, start small, perhaps one or two flights, and let the passengers figure out for themselves the superior product you're offering. Let the operational integrity and service do the marketing and send your marketing department to USAirways for training.

My suggestion would be to implement something Comair's marketing department did before Delta gutted its only chance at making money... weekend passes. I think it was something like $300 for 2 passes (weekend round trips) and it was an incredible success. Not only were the passes popular (pax still ask when those will come back), but it also strongly aligned the Cincinnati market with Comair. When someone in CVG needed to go somewhere on a full fare ticket, they went right back to Comair. Frontier needs to align the Denver market with Frontier and take back the low fare thunder stolen by Southwest.

 

[starchkr]

I don't think Frontier has a problem "aligning" the Denver market with Frontier, they have a strong following here. Also i don't think there has been a low fare thunder spawned by Southwest...sure a little market diversification maybe, but nothing major...I mean hell, we are beating them in a couple of the markets they serve out of DEN and they are markets that were thought to be solid for them.

Now as far as the LAX-SFO market being a mistake...well, i don't know maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I know SWA had a big flop with it, but what if we make it work, what would that say to the rest of the industry? The big LCC player SWA couldn't do it, but Frontier could...i believe that would be a wonderful thing. I imagine only time will tell, so for now i will hold hope that it will prevail as a good move...I mean what else can i do, i guess i could be like the rest of the glass half empty guys on here and say it would never work, but i am more optimistic and believe that it just may work for us.

 

[Shrek]

If anybody can make it work F9 can......