davywavy

I didn't think this is a finance board, but last I heard analysts respond quite well to profit and - last I heard - Indigo's Frontier is profitable.

But profit or loss, it is Indigo's money, no one else is involved.

lowfareair

Most of Spirit's service is 1x/daily, both in larger airports like PHL and smaller airports like ACY. Even routes like ORD-ATL and MCO-IAH are 1x daily. Last I checked, they had a 14% net margin last quarter and the stock has gone up (even with its recent pullback/correction) well over 50% in the past 12 months.

rtalk25

PHL-DFW was one route where US is price matching NK's single flight for advance purchase fares.

NK loads are still very high for it's flight on that route. I guess that last minute fares are still cheaper on NK than on US and the network carriers, that NK can fill up the single daily flight and maybe profitably enough. Even AA's site now has reduced roundtrips but US's site tends to show lower fares, including reduced one-ways and it was where it was originally matched. I believe WN also matches via one-stops and is matching ex BWI.

Actually PHL-LAS fares for advance purchase aren't as low as BWI-LAS advance. I see that WN has many $99 one-ways on BWI-LAS. I wonder if very low fares on BWI-LAS is affecting the attractiveness and yield potential of F9 on IAD-LAS, especially for a 5hr leisure flight, if pax in areas of DC look at both BWI and IAD.

BWI has more overlap with IAD than PHL in customer pull. I saw some below $80 IAD-LAS fares on Frontier.

Both seem too low really and I'd think BWI/IAD-LAS should be priced higher than MDW/ORD-LAS or ATL-LAS but that isn't the case. In the meantime, enjoy the low fares if you're flexible using WAS area airports.

flyallegheny

From your typing fingers to God's ears. PIT-TTN would be wonderful. Fares from PIT to PHL on AA/US are exorbitant, and PIT-NYC can get pricy, too.

However, I don't think folks in Pittsburgh are going to drive to CLE to fly to TTN. Two driving hours + flight isn't much better than five driving hours.

rtalk25

TTN-CLE is already deleted at this point. I don't think Frontier at TTN will have the capacity to add PIT. It probably should make UST or RDU daily but can't even accommodate that, since the number of flights it can offer from TTN is just around ten daily. At PHL, it is being fare matched against US/AA on routes like PHL-CLT for the roundtrips, although I notice that US is not fare matching PHL-CLT one-way trips. Although most pax probably opt for round-trips. I don't know how successful Frontier is so far on PHL-CLT or in general, against US competing on one of US' short-haul high frequency routes.

Maybe it'd consider PHL-YNG (as a sub for PIT and CLE) where US doesn't have a presence? Yeah right... I was actually thinking if CLT is being fare matched as a fortress hub, there is Concord, NC airport although Allegiant seems to have already gone in there with Florida service.

flyallegheny

Why is this?

I noticed that, too. Interesting.

There's not enough traffic to justify YNG. I say this selfishly, but PIT-TTN would have way more traffic than YNG-PHL. PHL-USA (that's Concord, NC) may be viable, especially if the rental car companies waive the one-way fee on cars to/from CLT. USA is reasonably close to downtown CLT and also close to the I-77 business corridor north of the city (Lowe's, NASCAR, etc.).

CMK10

TTN-RDU is daily though.

rtalk25

Not in April. The summer increase to daily might be because of an offset of less Florida service from TTN in the summer than winter.

rtalk25

I noticed that local Enterprise branches are flexible, and charge a $8 drop off. I was looking into flying PHL or TTN-CLT and stay a day in CLT to attend something, and then fly to Orlando. US charges crazy high fares on it's nonstop CLT-MCO, and the Delta CLT-ATL-MCO is really the only other option but very time consuming with the layover. Southwest tried CLT-MCO but was likely pressured out of that market. JetBlue tried CLT-FLL and was likely pressured out of that from US. So, CLT-Florida against US isn't easy and that is likely the next thing Frontier wants to offer it it wants to expand it's CLT footprint.

Anyways, I saw that Allegiant has a Concord (USA)-SFB flight and its $34 one-way with a debit card. I saw that a pickup from a branch near CLT airport to Concord, NC resulted in a below $50 one-way car rental which wasn't bad.

CMK10

I'm looking at FlyFrontier.com right now and not a single day shows "Grayed Day = No Service" and that's for April and May and all the way until the end of schedule.

Of course that could just be FlyFrontier.com being its usual self

rtalk25

Check for Monday, Wednesday and Fridays this month. Some Saturdays lack service when Fridays have it. My luck, the day that I wanted to fly out, there was no scheduled service.

rtalk25

TTN is a small airport with 2 gates only.

flyallegheny

Frontier is the only airline at TTN. With two gates they can only turn 10 flights per day?

rtalk25

I believe so. Perhaps a couple more flights, but I'll defer that to question to jerseyguy.

On a side note, I've noticed the website is being tweaked and improved:
1. The site is more responsive that I can type in TTN (for example) for From, and ORD for To, and it will search. When the site rolled out after the change the full text of the airport, e.g. Trenton, NJ (TTN) had to be selected and visible in order for the search to work.

2. A search on TTN-ORD displays: "The route you have selected operates seasonally, use calendar below to see available dates." So, I assume Frontier will not be offering the 2-3x weekly in the off season for TTN- Chicago. Central to Northern NJ area customers might not support the PHL-ORD option but Southwest offers low fares if booked 3 weeks in advance out of EWR, and United has weekly specials though not permitting a Sunday return. It would have been interesting if it just kept Sunday service on TTN-ORD and ORD-TTN during the offseason, with Sunday being a heavy travel day for return to home traffic for the leisure traffic. When Frontier had TTN-MDW on Sunday, fares were generally strong on that day. But maybe impractical to offer a 1x weekly for Sunday only.

It will be interesting if it keeps ORD-PHL daily as Spirit has extended the route past Labor Day, and United and Southwest were fare matching. I think Southwest might back off eventually of the low fare discounting however.

Jerseyguy

Well thank you rtalk. The reason that TTN is limited in flights is that even though they have 2 physical gates, the waiting area can't really handle 2 flights at a time comfortably, you could probably squeeze 2 A319s full of people but it would be rather tight and not everyone would have a seat. Then during delays if 2 other flights was scheduled to depart while one was delayed, it just wouldn't happen. Last Summer they had 11-12 flights a day and that is the upper limit due to the gate area. The gate area is only approximately 2700 sq ft. There is a pre-security seating area that is 2 floors above the gate area near the check-in area that is about 1500 square feet. According to TTN's original EA in 2002, airline standards require 12-15 square feet per person. This would provide for 180 to 225 people in the gate area and 100 to 125 people in the pre-security seating area. So 280-350 in Both areas and 2 filled A319s are 276 seats.