It did not okay, but not great - partly because Allegiant was flying GSO-SFB, perhaps, but also because of the issue I raised in the previous post - what to do with it when winter is over?

At that time, Frontier was going through the massive restructure of the fleet - the Republic E190's were going, as were the A318's and the more expensive A319 leases. Aircraft were at a premium and were needed for the more lucrative routes.

Also, Republic didn't provide Frontier with its own capital, it came from general (Republic) fund and once separation was decided, Republic closed access to the money. Frontier had to operate on its own cash flow and couldn't afford to nurse anything.

Under different circumstances, some of the MCO routes might have survived - SHD, for example, or perhaps GSO.

Now, things are different, and Indigo is providing Frontier with the capital it needs - they're spending $30 million on new seats and hiring scores (hundreds?) of pilots and f/a's, for example.

William Franke (Indigo CEO) has deep pockets, big iron balls and a wealth of airline knowledge, so the attitude has changed as well. The first example of it was probably CLE-MCO, which is an established (seasonal) Southwest route - the first direct challenge.

The philosophy that guided TTN is still the same - large populations with limited LCC service - but now it is being applied to primary airports, such CLE and IAD.

So I don't know what is going to happen. MCO is now up to nine routes (assuming the seasonals come back) and I would not fall over in shock to see more.

And while some think that Southwest's IAD-LAS is a jab at Frontier, it is more likely because Southwest doesn't have beyond perimeter slots (at DCA) for LAS or SAN, two of its biggest markets, so IAD has strategic value. But at the same time, Southwest has dropped CLE-LAS, suggesting that Southwest doesn't see much strategic value at CLE - perhaps because it has CAK. Would Frontier take on Southwest? Already has. Frontier's CLE-LAS was announced before Southwest dropped the route.

Southwest is also cutting IAD-MDW back to 2 x daily (from 6 x) while it beefs up DCA-MDW, but this leaves at least some IAD-ORD traffic on the table for Frontier.

Would this new Frontier take on Jetblue? Yeh, probably. It's a different ball game now. I don't think it will be dull, though. :-)