winstoda

Looking at the schedule beyond December... RSW discontinued. No MDW. No Denver. No ATL. Wondering if we're being scaled back to Central Florida service only? Or if the website isn't fully updated yet.

Jerseyguy

wow, lets hope they havent finished. Though they made MKE and CLE seasonal from TTN and STL and MSP are down to 1x weekly after 1/7/15. Since they added (or will add) TTN-NAS beginning in November, perhaps they are going for more winter seasonal destinations at TTN and maybe ILG.

CMK10

Wow that was fast. Let's hope it's not the case, it's a nice fallback for going to the PHL/BAL area.

rtalk25

I was thinking seasonal FLL or MIA would be a good addition for ILG.

I'm not too surprised about MDW being cutoff as seasonal, with last year it only operating 2x weekly during the Winter, Chicago weather last Winter was awful and Frontier had to cancel so many flights.

As for ATL, Southwest has been pricing PHL-ATL more competitively this year, (September WGAs at $99) so fewer might need to trek to ILG by waking up at 4am, for a 7am flight, just to save $25 and then have to pay Frontier for bag fee, seat selection fee possibly to avoid a middle, and change fee.

I'm more surprised about DEN, that it's being cut off from TTN-MDW and ILG and MDT. I just got the credit card miles bonus and wanted to fly West. Maybe it could do ACY and ABE at 3x weekly, but I'd think it'd still need ILG for the western (southern western) side of the PHL market. Otherwise, it might as well just add PHL-DEN back at 5x weekly or so. The Frontier that used to operate that route is a totally different airline pretty much now, and PHL pax would know Frontier as a ULCC.

winstoda

Now official... it was nice while it lasted:

http://www.delawareonline.com/story/...port/12938019/

Jerseyguy

They had a few opportunities for routes that came up suddenly CLE and IAD. Perhaps their short of planes, I've always wondered where these planes were coming from. It may sound like a brush off but I think when they have more planes they will resume service.

delawareguy

In what way is ILG over, that article says that DEN, MDW, ATL and RSW are coming back in the spring with the possibility of additional destinations.

delawareguy

Here is an official statement from the airport.

Frontier is making schedule adjustments at the airport for the 2014-2015 winter season. Service to Orlando will be increased from three to four times per week, operating on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Service to Tampa will increase from once to twice per week, operating on both Mondays and Fridays. Service will be seasonally suspended to Atlanta, Chicago, Denver and Fort Myers beginning on December 12th, 2014. We expect that the spring schedule will bring further increases with additional frequencies and new destinations.

rtalk25

For some solace to those that travel to Chicago and depend on low fares, Spirit is making BWI-ORD year round.

If any indication, Spirit flies DTW ATL ORD BOS seasonal from ACY in the Spring/Summer so maybe Frontier has a case for ILG for atleast ATL and MDW during the Spring/Summer.

I believe Spirit uses an aircraft that is otherwise used for FLL service. It flies FLL 3x daily from ACY in the Winter. It does fly connections but say if 1/3 seats are connecting, 2/3 are O&D, then 2 flights from ACY is quite a market that I'm surprised that Frontier isn't considering So. Florida from ILG during the Winter. Even Southwest which needed planes in DCA and DAL found a way to put planes back on PHL-FLL and PHL-PBI in December.

I wonder why Frontier isn't trying FLL. Or maybe it could try MIA. I think there is a pizzazz with the MIA/Miami city to lure customers. I know for those in Exton/West Chester and SE PA in general, ACY and BWI are kind of far, even TTN is 60 miles from Exton, so the Spirit options are not really there for them.

It just says: "will be reconsidered for return in the spring," Frontier might resume it but airlines have a history of not always resuming "suspended" routes.

I think the big loss is ILG-DEN. I wonder if another PHL area airport or PHL will just get DEN. DEN is still the hub of Frontier whether they admit or not.

winstoda

ILG might not be 'over', but saying it's been gutted is pretty fair. They've reduced it to what it probably should be with non-daily service, sun and fun several day a week service. The whole business destination 3 times a week, one flight a day won't work in the long run... at least Frontier is convinced it won't work after 12/13. Looks like Trenton was scaled back on the non-daily business destination routes... I think it ultimately makes sense.

I don't see them bringing back many of these routes in the Spring - but it's better to play the seasonal card to avoid hurting future Florida bookings. Still hoping for more Florida (FLL) and Vegas as those would make sense here.

winstoda

By the way, RSW was discontinued according to Frontier, not made seasonal. Wouldn't winter be the season for SW Florida?

lowfareair

That's because most of the traffic is leisure traffic, which doesn't travel as much in the winter. MDW was scaled back to 4x weekly last year as well. Not many people traveling to the midwest during the winter for vacation, they are going to warm weather or ski destinations.

rtalk25

I'm surprised MDW is getting less (that is less MDW-TTN, with no MDW-ILG) this next year, than say CLT-TTN and some other routes even though Chicago is cold. It's cold but it's still a huge city and Spirit is even running ORD-BWI year round.

It also looks like ILG isn't a "focus" and that MCO-ILG and TPA-ILG will be served by an MCO based plane and a TPA based plane respectively.

Perhaps with the cuts, it will base a plane at ORD. I doubt they'd offer ORD-ILG but maybe they'd add ORD-TTN 2x weekly. I also think PIT would be a good market for F9 and it could do maybe ORD-PIT-ILG daily, although F9 seems reluctant to offer through flights. PIT is a big market from the Philly region, however, and the drive sucks in the winter, and it'd make up for the loss of TTN-CLE as pax will rent a car from PIT to drive to CLE if low fare service was there to PIT.

delawareguy

According to the airport director, he not only expects the flights to come back in the spring but for more destinations and additional frequencies.

http://www.wdel.com/story.php?id=61121

winstoda

What else could he possibly have said? I hope service is expanded as well but I'm not sure you should put a whole lot of confidence in the DRBA spokesman...