Denverdavo

I'm pretty sure that Frontier is the last domestic airline that has not yet released their holiday schedule. Currently they are only booking for flights up until December 12th. Last year, under different ownership, their holiday seats were released on about June 5th. What do you think is going on that is causing this delay? When would you predict those flights will be released? Many of us are anxious to book, and I'm tempted to switch allegiances due to the lengthy delay.

Your input is appreciated!

rtalk25

Frontier's booking window and schedule extensions are like that now: very short. I believe it's ULCC driven.

As it opens new focus cities, it can test and try routes out and see which are popular and making money, and which are not. But every new route has to prove itself to some extent in that short period, and the short extensions permits more route changes overall. Frontier can also watch what Southwest is doing and release a schedule after Southwest and other competitors release their schedule. e.g. if Southwest decides to ramp up on IAD-LAS, Frontier can decide afterwards to go easy on that route and use the aircraft for another route.

Denverdavo

I agree that may be the case to some extent, but Spirit and Allegiant (the other two ULCC that I know of) have released their seats months ago now. Perhaps they are taking a more cautious approach since this is a new gig for them, but those who purchased the airline have a lot of experience since they used to own and operate Spirit from what I've read. Anyway, If they don't release within a couple weeks, I'm off to Southwest to book holidays. They'll be doing more Mexico in the future as well and so Frontier will lose some customers for sure if they are inclined to wait so long in future years.

davywavy

It's interesting that the Southwest booking window is only until January 4. I guess that's okay for holiday (Christmas) bookings if it's a very short holiday.

It is true that a huge bulk of Frontier traffic books close-in, but I believe it has been complicated this year because of Indigo, the new owners, and the fleet. While they want more aircraft for growth (and I believe more are coming) they don't want to take out too many long term leases on "old-style" A320's (Ceo's), because the new A320Neo's start arriving in fifteen months.

Anyhoo, I have heard that the booking window will be extended this coming week-end, but that's just from dickie birds at Frontier, I don't have it carved in granite.

Jimbo3

So what's up, when are they going to extend it?

Jerseyguy

F9 Facebook is saying this Sunday for travel thru March 1

rtalk25

I was looking at TTN-ATL and ILG-ATL and found out that both are very early AM flights, with TTN-ATL departing TTN before 6am, and ILG-ATL leaving just at about 7am.

I hope it re-times the ATL flight ex ILG to make it more of a different option than both being early morning.

Southwest has been erratic as it's pricing PHL-ATL for $99 in September but it goes back up to $149, but it seems in general to be applying some discounting to attain traffic, since when F9 announced ILG-ATL.

I think it'd be cool for MIA opening as a station with TTN ILG and maybe MDW service. December would be start of peak season for it.

Earthlings

April would of been better so people can get their spring break flights booked.

Denverdavo

Thanks for catching the Facebook post about the release of flights this Sunday. I suppose they will go up at midnight Denver time. I'm looking forward to getting holidays booked!

rtalk25

Mysteriously missing also is MDT-MCO from the first two weeks of the existing December schedule. That service from what I read is operated by the ILG based aircraft.

Maybe ILG will get a So. Florida run? To note: Southwest resumes PHL-FLL and PHL-PBI during this peak season start when it competes against US/AA. If not added to the schedule this year, I don't think Frontier will ever launch it as it moves on to other opportunities.

As for MDT, I don't know what it has plans with MDT-MCO, but MDT-DEN remains in the first two weeks of December.

Jimbo3

Still nothing and it's 8am eastern time right now on the 20th

knope2001

So far here are adjustments I see:

Trenton
CLE, MKE, MSP, STL all end "seasonally" in early January -- resumption date not stated
1-stop DEN service via MDW ends
2x each BNA, DTW, IND
3x each UST, CVG
4x each FLL, MDW, RDU, RSW
5x CLT TPA
6x ATL
8x MCO

Wilmington
DEN, MDW, ATL end "seasonally" in mid December -- resumption date not stated
2x TPA
4x MCO

I'm looking at Denver now to see how things look. Some additional markets are listed as "seasonal" and I'll post what I find.

Jerseyguy

MSP and STL go to 1x weekly they arent seasonally discontinued (beginning 1/7/15)

frugal_flyer

It looks like CLE-LAS nonstops are discontinued in early December. Bummer! I wanted to do a Super Bowl weekend in Vegas with Frontier's help!

I am thinking that the web site is still not fully updated, though. Clicking on the Low Fare Calendar, it seems that CLE nonstop flights to ATL, LGA, ORD, and IAD are discontinued late December/early January. But if you actually click on the calendar dates that are available, then click the "next week" buttons on the date result page, then the nonstops show up then.

I am new to looking at Frontier's web site, being based in CLE, so I don't know if this is "normal" during the schedule extension rollout?

knope2001

Here's Denver capacity for mid February ranked by seats per week:

seats � flts � city
4944 �.. 4.7 �.. dfw
4764 �.. 4.7 �.. slc
4596 �.. 4.6 �.. las
4326 �.. 3.9 �.. san
3936 �.. 3.9 �.. phx
3588 �.. 3.7 �.. msp
3492 �.. 3.4 �.. lax
3174 �.. 3.3 �.. sfo
3108 �.. 3.0 �.. dca
2760 �.. 2.9 �.. sna
2604 �.. 2.6 �.. mco
2352 �.. 2.0 �.. mke
2346 �.. 2.4 �.. sea
2328 �.. 2.3 �.. pdx
2184 �.. 1.9 �.. ind
2142 �.. 2.0 �.. atl
2142 �.. 2.0 �.. cun
1794 �.. 1.9 �.. aus
1656 �.. 1.7 �.. iah
1518 �.. 1.6 �.. mci
1518 �.. 1.6 �.. mdw
1518 �.. 1.6 �.. okc
1452 �.. 1.3 �.. fll
1380 �.. 1.4 �.. bna
1380 �.. 1.4 �.. tpa
1380 �.. 1.4 �.. msy
1254 �.. 1.1 �.. stl
1242 �.. 1.3 �.. sjd
1104 �.. 1.1 �.. pvr
1008 �.. 0.9 �.. lga
1008 �.. 0.9 �.. cle
0966 �.. 1.0 �.. oma
0966 �.. 1.0 �.. rsw
0840 �.. 0.7 �.. ord
0828 �.. 0.9 �.. msn
0720 �.. 0.7 �.. cvg
0690 �.. 0.7 �.. mem
0690 �.. 0.7 �.. fsd
0672 �.. 0.6 �.. dtw
0552 �.. 0.6 �.. psp
0552 �.. 0.6 �.. bzn
0552 �.. 0.6 �.. sjo
0414 �.. 0.4 �.. lit
0414 �.. 0.4 �.. fat
0414 �.. 0.4 �.. sba
0414 �.. 0.4 �.. dsm
0414 �.. 0.4 �.. sux
0414 �.. 0.4 �.. far
0414 �.. 0.4 �.. bis
0276 �.. 0.3 �.. mot
0276 �.. 0.3 �.. phf
0138 �.. 0.1 �.. czm
0138 �.. 0.1 �.. lir

With this schedule, several markets go seasonal after early January: Cedar Rapids, Bloomington, Greensboro, Knoxville, Harrisburg, Bakersfield, Durango, Eugene, Spokane, Idaho Falls and Missoula. Some of those did operated during last winter. (Fairbanks, Jackson, Great Falls, Branson, Anchorage and Bellingham also don't operate in this new schedule period, but they already end in the previous schedule.)

There's a fair level of frequency reductions in Denver compared to last February as well. For example while most big west coast markets have traditionally been 3-4 per day most of the year, with this schedule both Seattle and Portland have some days per week with only 2x. Kansas City, Omaha and St Louis are down to less than 2x/day, and some markets which were daily (including Des Moines and Sioux Falls) are sub-daily with this schedule. However this is the lowest travel period of the year and seasonal reductions are part of the story. But I think this also represents the onward movement toward flying when and where leisure customers want to go versus operating a consistent business-reliable schedule even if that means flying half-empty planes at times.

If I have a chance to look more at other markets (IAD, CLE, STL, etc) I'll post that later.