delawareguy

Looks like ILG is finally fixing up their terminal with new baggage area this month. Then major improvements late summer/early fall.

http://www.delawareonline.com/story/...ments/6932611/

You can also go to www.flywilmilg.com , at the bottom of the page is a link to their master plan which includes a recent study conducted about improving the terminal.

Jerseyguy

Sounds great that baggage claim area gets quite crowded.

CMK10

That's good news, I'm flying ILG-ATL in June. I have a Classic fare, do they have priority check-in/security screening or is that too much to ask?

Jerseyguy

I believe you will get Priority check-in and priority boarding but at ILG theres 1 security line which isn't that bad so you don't really need priority security. You'll be thru in between 10-20 minutes.

CMK10

Works for me. I think the 7:10 AM flight to ATL is the only flight at that time too.

Jerseyguy

Atleast for now, whatever flight your on at ILG is the only flight at that time. I believe that F9 only uses 1 aircraft to operate that schedule. A thing to remember Frontier has a hard and fast 45 minute check-in requirement, so make sure you are checked in with any bags and have a boarding pass by then. If you don't have any bags to check and you have your boarding pass printed from home (not sure if the kiosks will work) you need not arrive by then but if you do your probably SOL if your not checked in by 6:25am.

CMK10

Thanks for reminding me. I average one or fewer Frontier flight a year so a little advice goes a long way ^

rtalk25

I checked the baggage claim at ILG. I don't remember what it was prior, but if it's finished, it's still small to me. I think they should get rid of the little café and expand the baggage claim area even more, maybe even have a real carousel that moves around to give more space to pick up the bags. The seedy Quality Inn should be demolished and that could be used for restaurants and rental car facility, and expanding the terminal (everything) to be bigger.

There is a Wawa very close to ILG that is convenient to stop into before taking an ILG flight. On the other side of DuPont Highway is a Dunkin Donuts, so maybe a café or restaurant isn't really needed with everything so close around the airport. But it'd be a nice to have.

The return to ILG experience is still better than the return to TTN experience, although the flying out of TTN experience is better with the second floor observation deck and restaurant. TTN also has curbside cabs, but my suggestion is not to depend on that as sometimes none are available.

ACY is like a major airport experience compared to both though, but is the most remote relative to the general population within one hour around it.

winstoda

As a resident of the county I'm not going to argue that I wouldn't like to see a larger operation at New Castle County Airport but I'm not sure the expansions you suggest are needed or a good investment.

Not sure why the baggage claim needs to be expanded beyond what's already proposed. There is little prospect of additional carriers coming into the airport and Frontier has not shown that they are going to commit much more than their one dedicated aircraft and handful (7 I think?) of destinations. Until they do we're not looking at a regular seven day a week operation. And I'm not sure who would pay - the DRBA isn't flush with extra cash.

I could see the cafe being closed and demolished - it doesn't add much value from the commercial airport perspective being before security. But most of their business comes from the workers on site not travelers. They do a brisk lunch business.

Quality Inn has been there forever and aside from the visiting minor league ball clubs I don't know much about how much business they do. But I don't think it's on DRBA property so I'm not sure they have much say. There have been several restaurants on the site over the years - all have failed. Most recently an Italian place. The building is now an urgent care facility. Not sure why an expanded rental car facility is needed with Avis and Budget already on-site.

The bottom line is that ILG is what it is. It's a small facility with one ULC carrier with limited flights. We can play 'build a dream airport' but the dream scenarios don't fit the reality. Which is that it's a facility pretty well-suited for what Frontier has in mind for it.

rtalk25

I think ILG has a reasonably good location in the Philadelphia region, and US/AA is making PHL too much of a fortress hub for others to be interested to want to grow.

I disagree that a regular baggage claim with atleast one carousel and more space for pax to be spread out, and a better waiting area, re-use of the Quality Inn site for something more useful, and a proper area for rental cars and curbside cabs, equates to a "build a dream airport."

winstoda

But this is nothing new. The hub at PHL has been there forever - one dedicated aircraft with 7 non-daily destinations won't ever make a dent in that. There's no momentum for such an investment - history unfortunately shows us that our little airport will not take on PHL. TTN might. But unless F9 seriously ramps things up those investments won't be made... no one else is coming.

DRBA already runs a money-pit in the ferry. They won't make additional investments unless something real comes along.

delawareguy

I still think their is a lot of potential for ILG to grow. Just yesterday, the airport director told WDEL that there may be some new destinations on the horizon such as CVG and SJU. I don't expect ILG to grow to TTN size. Frontier is limited on planes, especially a320s. Maybe when the NEOs arrive, there will be more expansion. On ILG improvements, they just doubled the baggage claim and added 50 parking spots. More permanent renovations are to come late summer/early fall. The small green space between Lot B and the waiting area could be used added to the waiting area or maybe even allow for a second gate. This seems to be following the TTN model and hopefully there will be more expansion afterwards. The café does have an agreement with TSA where passengers can carry food through but it could be expanded to be more full service. I just experienced arriving in TTN for the first time last weekend and I was not impressed, they make you walk all the way to this cold tiny trailer, pack 80 people in there and then when you get your bags, you exit and you have to walk all the way back to the terminal. They call this an improvement. ILG while it does have a small bag claim, is connected to the terminal and is a short walk from the plane. TTN's terminal also did not impress me, it was dark and dingy, while the observation deck and full service restaurant are nice, I find ILG to be much brighter.

winstoda

I'm glad to hear there may be more destinations in the pipeline - I want this to be a successful venture and to grow. I understand the less than daily flights to Florida and don't doubt that San Juan would also do very well. It's the other destinations I don't understand. I frequently travel for business. Chicago and Atlanta are two of my frequent destinations. But since F9 came online with the MDW flights I've only used them a handful of times - more often I'm flying out of PHL. Why? 3 times a week doesn't work for my meetings. Same deal with ATL, DTW and any future CVG flights. Potential is there for a successful leisure operation. I question the viability for business travelers.

rtalk25

I was a proponent for ILG-DFW as of last week, but it appears that US is matching Spirit intensely up in PHL, with $74 fares on usairways.com on multiple flights now - not just the same departure time flight as the Spirit one. So, Frontier would probably struggle, if low nonstop fares on US up the road in PHL are easily available.

On americanairlines.com, the flights are expensive, so I don't know the US/AA strategy on that. Perhaps they just want Spirit out of PHL and expect that on this key DFW route to be under one operator, them, before the two airline sites are merged.

Regarding MDW and DTW, I think F9 might find it easier merging the schedule up at TTN with TTN-MDW/DTW going daily, and maybe 2x on some days, even in the winter. As a replacement for that loss, I'd thought DFW would be best for ILG but now I'm just leaning towards maybe Florida cities, ATL and DEN. Hopefully, ILG-DEN will be increased and get an uptick in pax, as ILG-DEN-West will be suited for those going west, who can no longer afford to fly nonstop because Virgin is ending nonstop out of PHL.

I think Frontier with it's low fares on TTN-ATL and ILG-ATL could actually hurt Southwest on PHL-ATL, more than the MDW, since Southwest isn't that strong in ATL where it competes with Delta and (US/AA from the PHL side) on the business passenger front, while Frontier siphons leisure pax away.

Southwest has stated it doesn't like connection traffic as much as O&D traffic as well, but maybe all three (US, Delta, and Southwest) are attaining enough O&D traffic that Frontier isn't taking enough customers away from them.

davywavy

You're quite right to question it - Frontier defines itself as a leisure (and VFR) airline. Generally, it does not schedule for the perceived needs of the business traveller.

When ILG started, Florida was gangbusters out the gate, and DEN, but MDW - at 3 x weekly - was dodgy, they had to sell it quite hard. As word got around, MDW built and now it seems to doing well.

It remains to be seen if the same will be true of ATL and DTW, but the first ATL flights are going out full, or close to it.

Personally, I'd like to see more obvious leisure routes from ILG, with SJU high on my list, and probably STT (Sy. Thomas), but some of it has to do with aircraft time. The shorter flights can be fitted into the schedule and the aircraft based at ILG (which also operates (MDT-MCO) has the highest usage in the Frontier system, at over 14 hours a day.