pauljacobson958

Looks like Frontier Airlines and the City of Denver are fighting in the media over taxes and landing fees. Earlier this week the Frontier CEO sent a letter to employees blaming higher taxes and landing fees for Frontier's decision to cut flights and jobs at DEN. Now the mayor and the airport manager are firing back in the media. There's a thread over in the Frontier form about this.

With the dramatic change in its business model to an ultra low-cost airline it's hard to see how a Frontier pullback at DEN would have any impact on UA. Would a Frontier pullback open any new opportunities for UA? WN would probably see more upside. Still, DEN has been interesting case study because it's been a hub for all three models: legacy (UA), low-fare (WN) and ultra low-fare (F9). Perhaps the deal announced a few months ago to solidify UA's presence at DEN has prompted Frontier make noise about pulling out in order to get a better deal. Finally, what does this say about DEN as a hub for a bare bones airline?

3Cforme

Not much.

Frontier's DEN drawdown is an outcome many suspected - it's the weakest of the three in a metro that just isn't big enough to support substantial hub operations by three carriers. NYC can do it. CHI can do it. LAX gets split four ways with no carrier dominant. DEN isn't big enough - like Dallas wasn't big enough for simultaneous AA/DL/WN hubs.

The absence of many large-population metros in the 'sort of driveable' distance from DEN means that low prices can stimulate just so much extra air traffic from pulling people out of cars. The competition by three carriers, however, has led to some great low fares, on average.

pinniped

Denver wasn't a hub for WN during its low-fare era, which ended a few years ago at least. In fact, I'm not sure I'd really call it a WN hub now. ("Hub" is a loose term in WN-land...)

I will say that Denver is one of the few cities left where I still see relatively reasonable airfares (from MCI), thanks to the three carriers.