Frontier Airlines EarlyReturns - Frontier Airlines Holdings, Inc. Launches Turboprop Service

DENVER, Sept. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Frontier Airlines Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: FRNT), referred to below as the Company, today announced it has entered into an agreement with Bombardier, Inc. to purchase ten 74-seat Q400 turboprop aircraft...

full text here (http://www.frontierairlines.com/frontier/who-we-are/news-media/press-releases.do)

This is great! SuperDash should do great in this region. I'm a bit surprised they didn't expand the QX partnership, since that seems more cost effective. If I understand correctly, there will be mainline F9, F9x (operated by QX), F9 regional (wholly owned subsidiary), and possibly another carrier operating some F9x flights if they don't grow the QX operation.

SuperDash should do great in this region...

I think the plan for QX is to replace them. I guess the agreement only calls for them to operate a max. of nine JetEx a/c, which prevents QX from operating these new planes.

The question is how well these flights will compete against United Express and Great Lakes.

The F9 regional product should easily beat UAx and Great Lakes. Anyone know if the 18 proposed destinations are SuperDash only or is that including F9x? Unless F9 will replace several short haul markets with turboprops, I can't think of 18 additional area cities that are worthy of a 74 seater.

What destinations do you think they'll cover? Any luck for Wyoming? Great Lakes Aviation is wonderful, but hard to justify traveling with them when their ticket costs you more than your flight across the country!

What destinations do you think they'll cover? Any luck for Wyoming? Great Lakes Aviation is wonderful, but hard to justify traveling with them when their ticket costs you more than your flight across the country!

The only Wyoming city announced right now is Jackson. The other two are Eagle County Colorado (Aspen) and Durango. The year round residents of Wyoming will still have to tollerate the exorbinate prices of Great Lakes for a while. Any interest at all in building high speed rail in Wyoming with that 2 billion surplus? The Fed's aren't moving real fast on the Seattle to Denver proposal.

Adding area ski resorts (maybe even SUN) seems logical as does replacing some Airbus or CRJ equip on other regional routes. This frees up those a/c for additional frequencies or cities. Will be interesting to see if F9 mgmt can make this happen.
I dialed into the webcast this morning, but couldn’t hear it. I’ll try again later.

From aviationnow.com


President and CEO Jeff Potter told The DAILY that feeding Denver with the Q400s will be an important step in launching the operations, and he noted the aircraft will operate from the east end of Concourse A at Denver International Airport. The carrier recently reached a deal with the airport to take over six additional gates in that concourse.

Frontier plans to serve up to 18 destinations in the Colorado and Rocky Mountain region with the planes. Potter said the carrier will likely fly to mountain destinations and other cities that Frontier hasn't been able to tap due to operational constraints.

The subsidiary will be staffed with new-hire pilots, Potter explained. Frontier created a holding company earlier this year that provided the flexibility to create the new division, but Potter explained launching a Q400 operator wasn't the driving force behind the creation of Frontier Airlines Holdings.

A Horizon spokesman said that the carrier "expressed an interest in flying the planes for them [Frontier]," and that the airline is also interested in flying Q400s for other carriers. Horizon flies 20 of the planes, has 13 on order and holds options for 19 more.

Potter said that after examining the economics, Frontier ultimately decided that the flying was something that should be done by Frontier, adding that this structure would create a more seamless operation, with Frontier having greater control over customer service.

Frontier is also the latest U.S. carrier to put its current regional flying up for re-bidding. Within 30 days, the airline plans to send a request for proposals to regional airlines inviting them to bid on flying up to 20 regional jets to either replace or enhance the nine CRJ-700s Horizon flies as Frontier JetExpress. Potter said Frontier would like to award the flying as soon as possible, but the process could take a couple of months. The 12-year contract between Frontier and Horizon includes an option for either side to start a review of the deal after three years.

The carrier's chief executive said Frontier is pleased with the characteristics of the 70-seat CRJs Horizon flies, and airline has a need for additional planes. Frontier's goal is to get as close to its 20-plane target as possible, Potter noted.

For its part, Horizon believes opportunities exist in its route system for the nine CRJ-700s if they exit Frontier's network, the carrier's spokesman explained, noting that Horizon's recent tentative deal with CommutAir to sublease 16 37-seat Q200s to the airline would create some space in Horizon's route structure.