Frontier Possible Expansion Plans

[RiteSideUp]

Article from Denver Posts website.

Link

Frontier considering ways to broaden reach
Foreign-carrier partners and bigger planes are options as Southwest comes to Denver.
By Kelly Yamanouchi
Denver Post Staff Writer

Frontier Airlines executives are considering a code-share partnership with a foreign carrier for international flights, a move that could greatly broaden the Denver-based airline's reach and offer more options to travelers.
"I think it would be important for us in the future to hook up with a foreign carrier," Frontier chief financial officer Paul Tate said during a presentation Thursday at the Calyon Securities US Airline Conference.
Frontier's limited reach internationally is one of its weaknesses compared with its larger competitor in Denver, United Airlines. The only foreign country Frontier flies to is Mexico. While Frontier has a partnership with Virgin Atlantic, the departures are not convenient, said Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas.
Finding code-share opportunities domestically and internationally is important to Frontier, Hodas said. Such a move could also boost Frontier's competitive position against Southwest Airlines, which begins flying to Denver on Jan. 3 from Phoenix, Las Vegas and Chicago Midway.
Southwest chief financial officer Laura Wright, who also spoke at the conference, said Denver is an opportunity for Southwest to "come in with lower fares," as Denver fares are higher than fares out of Phoenix in comparable markets.


Frontier is also considering expanding its fleet with bigger planes, Tate said. The airline is looking at Airbus 320s, which typically have 156 seats and would be larger than Frontier's current planes.
"That is something we're looking at very closely," particularly since Southwest introduced lower fares in some markets, Tate said. A larger plane could bring economies of scale that could make up for lower fares if the airline can fill the seats. Frontier has also been looking at again expanding outside Denver. An attempt to do so in Los Angeles failed this year. A city smaller than Los Angeles might work better, Tate said. Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-820-1488 or [email protected].

Maybe this is what that convertible debt was for? Sounds very exciting! I think we are gearing up for a friendly little competition with WN. Any ideas who the code share could possibly be?

 

[Remington]

The domestic code share partener could be SWA.

 

[F9 Driver]

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/051212/lam086.html?.v=32

Press Release Source: Frontier Airlines

Frontier Airlines Hires New Senior Vice President of Operations
Monday December 12, 3:07 pm ET

DENVER, Dec. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Frontier Airlines (Nasdaq: FRNT - News) today announced it has hired Christopher Collins as its new Senior Vice President of Operations.

Collins brings over 20 years of experience in airline operations, planning, customer service and technology implementation to Frontier. Collins began his well-credentialed airline career with one of the original low cost carriers, People Express and most recently, he served as Vice President, System Operations for New York based JetBlue Airways, where he was responsible for the airline's day-to-day operations and was directly responsible for several of JetBlue's most significant customer service technology deployments. Prior to JetBlue, Collins served Continental Airlines for over a decade in several different executive and senior management capacities including six years as Continental's Vice President of Operations and Planning for its Micronesia operations. Collins will oversee Frontier's flight operations, maintenance and customer service departments and will report to Jeff Potter, President and CEO.

"Chris is the ideal candidate to fill the critical role of managing our day-to-day operations and he is also a perfect fit for this company as a leader and an innovator," said Potter. "We've spent significant time over the past several months searching for a proven performer to fill the very important role of managing the operations of our most critical customer interactions. To that challenge, Chris brings not only his 20 plus years of industry experience, but also a true leadership quality and a firm grasp on what it means to be dedicated to customer service. When combined with his innate sense for technologic innovation, I have no doubt that Chris will take our operations to the next level, further solidifying our position as industry leader in customer service."

 

[jetalc]

The domestic code share partener could be SWA.

Now THAT's funny - I don't who ya are.

 

[Jetsi]

Boy are the rumors gonna be flying in the crew room.

I have looked at the Virgin America website, noted how they were talking about limits of foreign ownership, blah blah blah. What I don't know are their plans. Are they going to be doing all of their their flying in the US, or are they going to be a LCC going international across the pond?

Going to previous posts, F9 has said that we won't see 40% growth again. Adding 19 planes to our current fleet would be 39.6%. Not 40%, but close .

Something is going on here, we just don't know exactly yet.

I will throw a guess out there. Raising the money to buy/lease/finance some extra aircraft (13 or less), and opening a new base in Nashville. Operations from BNA to the Caribbean.

Anybody else have any theories? :beer:

Jetsi

 

[F9 Driver]

92M worth of A340's doing Mexico - Canada via someplace cheap in the middle of the country. CUN is our next base as soon as its rebuilt.

Or we could just increase frequency to LAS,PHX, and MDW.

I guess we'll know when its in the Rocky Mountain News - and they'll get it wrong like everything else

 

[Big Duke Six]

I heard we were getting A380 combis with 132 seats. We'll still only need 3 FA's, and we'll carry freight in the rest of the plane since we're buying FedEx with the 92M.

Howzat?

 

[crashpad]

Quote:
Originally Posted by jetalc
it will never see the 40%+ aggressive growth it saw a couple of years ago .


Overall, maybe not. This wave will spike at our old 30-40% growth rate and that's just to compensate for the slow growth over the past 4 years. A lot of F/Os' are going to see the left seat over the next couple of years, and that's the best part of all!
__________________

I stand by my record of predictions.

 

[jetalc]

Quote:
Originally Posted by jetalc
it will never see the 40%+ aggressive growth it saw a couple of years ago .


Overall, maybe not. This wave will spike at our old 30-40% growth rate and that's just to compensate for the slow growth over the past 4 years. A lot of F/Os' are going to see the left seat over the next couple of years, and that's the best part of all!
__________________

I stand by my record of predictions.

Let's hope you're right so Jetski and I can see the left seat that much sooner! Here's to being off reserve :beer: !

 

[US Flyer]

Expansion and reserve question

Let's hope you're right so Jetski and I can see the left seat that much sooner! Here's to being off reserve :beer: !

Not trying to hijack this thread, but for those that are at Frontier now- how long did it take to get a line when you were a new-hire? Hopefully as mentioned the new aircraft deliveries will help with this. Thanks for the info!