Frontier's 2011 Plans
 

I had meant to make this post a few weeks ago but work and the holidays got in the way.

Last month Bryan Bedford was the keynote speaker at the Power Breakfast in Milwaukee sponsored by the Business Journal. Here's a link to the article covering his appearance:

http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee...o-staying.html

During his speech and the Q&A session that followed, Bedford made some interesting comments about Frontier's 2011 plans that merit some attention here. In particular:

Frequent Flier partnership/alliance

"Something else we’re also interested in next year is partnerships. Midwest used to have a partnership with Northwest and then Delta, which allowed our frequent fliers access to their international networks. We think that’s a critical component of our service proposition that we have to bring back. So, we’re talking to all of the legacy carriers in North America trying to find a good fit where we can reconnect with a global carrier.”

“There are some carriers that we are talking to where the relationship could go beyond just mile sharing. But we’re going to pursue all options through the first quarter of next year so that by summer we can bring back some travel options beyond our own network. Over the next five years, we want to take on more of a national scope. But to do it, we’ll have to have organic growth and a partner to give us access to a much, much deeper network.”

Frontier Commercials/Brand in Milwaukee

In March, we’ll have a whole new campaign coming out. That’s when we’ll unveil a whole new Frontier to Milwaukee.”

Interesting. I wonder what he means by a "whole new Frontier?"

Use of regional jets in Milwaukee

"We need the right assets in the right places. We need fewer of the smaller regional jets flying out of here and more larger capacity planes that allow us to offer competitive fares profitably. It’s about getting the right assets into the right markets.”

Expansion of the Milwaukee hub

“We do have a significant initiative going on next year in which we will bring in 10 additional Airbus aircraft and six additional 99-seat E-Jets. Those new aircraft will be used to expand many of our service offerings in our hubs in Milwaukee and Denver."

Installing Live TV on the E190s

“Television is available on all of our Airbus flights and we are evaluating in 2011 how to distribute television on the 99-seat E-190 jets.”

I think we will all be suprised by what happens this year.

Republic buys American? :D

I am getting kind of antsy for some new Frontier news myself. I hope 2011 has a ton of good news in it for the airline.

I think Republic buys is going to be the operative words. Maybe not another airline but I believe it will be something other than what was announced in the past.

Jetblue buys Republic? Perhaps, Bedford is shopping.

Republic trumps WN's offer for FL :D

A partnership with American would be amazing. A club lounge in Denver would be nice.

Me too--while I was obviously tongue in cheek with the recipient of their love (I think), acquiring somebody, or merging with somebody would be the most logical step. Unless they have rock-solid contracts, there is too much change in the industry for them to be confident on the path they are on with providing service to their legacy partners, and they are too small in their current incarnation to stand alone from a revenue standpoint--the logical thing is to continue to agglomerate if possible.

But this is of course, just speculation for fun...not like I looked at the balance sheet to figure out how they stand after the last few years of excitement.

Amen Ram.

That would get me to switch back to F9. Since the Republic acquisition I've gone back to UA. The whole different animal became a skunk.

If the plans don't include a website where you can change seats after booking the res, then I too would give F9 a "skunk" rating.

And a free flight map. And working IFE and ACTUAL priority boarding for Ascent and Summit members as opposed to after military and after those who will at least claim not to put a bag into the overhead bin but might anyway. And priority rebooking for Ascent and Summit members when an MX occurs as opposed to helter skelter process I saw last week in LAS with non revs and other airline deadheaders being taken care of first. And 21st century kiosks in the largest US airports. And getting the website not to crash after entering a user name and password and updating F9 miles flown in less than a week.

Were any of those things different before the bankrupcty court approved Republic's purchase of Frontier?

Somehow I think regardless of what Frontier/RAH does you will find fault with us.

Folks, let's review the posting rules here as there seems to be some confusion.

Members have the right to post nearly any opinion they please as long as it doesn't attack a fellow FT'er or otherwise violate the TOS. Sarcasm and even a fair bit of spleen venting is acceptable so long as you limit your comments to the topic at hand and not take aim at your fellow FT'er in any way, shape or form. Posts that refer to another FT'er in a derogatory or personalizing manner will be removed and the poster may receive some sidelines time.

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essxjay
F9 moderator

Yes. All of them.

Not true. Run it professionally and not as an extension of a church and I'm on board. Cut out the boarding shenanigans, recognize frequent flyers as your bread and butter, get technology that's 1995 in every airport where you fly at least 3 times a day, keep the IFE working, on days when the entire cabin gets free IFE due to screw up, give Classic tickets and Ascent's free drinks and give Summit and Plus tickets 2 free drinks. If the leadership of the company has deep religious beliefs, keep them out of the business. If a headphone jack or IFE doesn't work and has been paid for give a refund and miles. If they don't work and the flyer is Ascent/Summit, give more miles. I don't think any of these needs are particularly radical or needy.

Well the religion part is really only in your opinion. I work here and BB says God bless and I pray. Okay so what. He and the rest of the Executive management are very professional. I guess you have the same problem flying on UAX/DLC/FLX operated by SkyWest for the same reason. Jerry Atkin is a devote Mormon and makes it very well known. Of course we have already talked about that. The engines aren’t going to fall off the plane because BB is Catholic.

Every flight I have worked on the Frontier operation Summit and Ascents boarded first even before those in wheelchairs and those that needed assistance.

You are correct about the kiosks. However they weren't there before the acquisition and are being added now. I have no idea about the website if you have issues maybe send a note to IT. I have issues with CO website (yes I do buy tickets) and I have had to work with their IT and found it was a problem with my computer. I don't know if that is similar but hey it is worth a shot to ask.

If your IFE doesn't work then yes you will get a refund but you do need to tell the F/A's and then send a note to CS. Have you asked the F/A's for something when things go wrong or you have been inconvenienced? Summits already get unlimited free premium beverages. As for what you’re asking for I don't know if they are in line with what other airlines offer but I will offer a caveat that UA is notorious for over compensating.
God Bless

Thanks for bringing that information back to the forefront, blue. Lots going on at work which just keeps me behind on what I’d like to post.

Good to see that it is a priority, and looking for a “global” partner is encouraging. Hooking up with someone like Alaska or Virgin America has benefit, but neither opens up many more domestic destinations and offers nothing overseas. Ideally Frontier joins with someone who gives us access to earn and/or spend miles to places like Jacksonville, Reno, and Albany, but also London, Hong Kong and Auckland.

One wonders how much “organic growth” potential there is within the existing Frontier system. Certainly DEN and MKE have some spokes to add, and there are some reasonable possible additions at MCI and OMA. I wonder if that’s what he’s alluding to, or if there are plans for more.

Very eager to see what this is. Although they have advertised a reasonable amount, there hasn’t been much buzz (since the name-the-badger things) nor has there been a lot which would identify or endear Frontier to Milwaukee. March would also be a great time to unveil some summer expansion, including MKE-ANC.

Just so much is unknown about their MKE plans at the moment. On the one end, I could see them keeping the current setup this summer with just some incremental upgrades. Or to go the other direction, I could see them ramping up east-west here as well. I have to wonder if they have a handful of different plans based on the direction and timing of WN/FL actions. I don’t want to beat the same dead horse yet again regarding speculation on the new WN’s plans in Milwaukee, but some of the longer-haul west markets are currently so wrung dry that it only makes sense for Frontier to have limited service. If Frontier puts larger aircraft into places like Pittsburgh, Newark, and Hartford…for which there is realistic potential…they need more spokes to the west. They can’t only fly MKE-west spokes to fill seats in markets like BDL-MKE-xxx. But with MKE-west markets so heavily saturated today it’s seemingly not worth the proposition for Frontier to dedicate equipment to well-timed daytime flights MKE-west to connect to and from east coast destinations. The amount of resources (high or low) Southwest decides to dedicate to MKE-west flying will greatly influence the viability of Frontier’s potential east-west ramp-up in Milwaukee. Frontier still has a bigger network east from which to operate a larger hub, but if they want to get larger aircraft with better CASM in, they need more balance to the west.

I don’t know if Frontier has any such plans or not, but the repeated comments of Bedford about recovering traffic and recapturing share suggest that they are looking beyond the current winter scheduled level. We shall see.

No, absolutely not. They won't buys it.

No, probably not. They won't buy it. They are independent airlines and does not have a real codeshare partnership for this time.

Long discussion in Omni about the inappropriateness and possible legal ramifications of your bible thumping CEO. Feel free to join that discussion. For those who don't know about it:

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_13786516

There are other FTers other than me disturbed by this and who also think it's extreme, unwarranted and possible actualized in ways that are illegal since he does not compartmentalize his beliefs the way other religious executives do. Anyway, that's on OMNI.

SkyWest blows by the way so feel free to make that comparison all day long.

If you board elites first you're an outlier. I haven't seen that on one flight in 2010 or 2011. I'm on F9 twice this week and if I witness that I'll update this post.

As for the website, yeah, there's another posting on that to that you can search and read.

You may be the first I've heard accuse UA of overcompensating for problems. Hmm. I bet you're in the minority.

I´m not sure what else they could realistically add from OMA. LAS and PHX are decent size markets but already have LCC competition.

There are still some decent routes that could be added from MCI, especially if it is used as a bridge from MKE and DEN.

As for other growth opportunities, there are still some places to create a another focus city or two. SMF, BDL, PIT, RDU, JAX, or even RSW could all be good candidates.


Are you planning a trip to ANC or something? You´ve mentioned this route more than once :) All kidding aside, I do think MKE-ANC could work. However, March might be a little late to announce service as a lot of cruise bookings have probably already been made.

They do need to add a route that will create some excitement and buzz. Announcing something like MKE-CLT will make people yawn.

Very true. I´m glad to see most of the West Coast service return this summer. It allows Frontier to have non-stop options available during the peak travel periods (when yields will be stronger) plus they can react quickly should Southwest decide to pull-down the East-West flying.

So far AirTran has not added MKE-SAN (or ATL-SAN) back to the schedules so Frontier may have a monopoly of the non-stops this summer.

As a lot of traffic heading to the East Coast flows through MKE, it might be more appropriate to bump-up frequency and/or up-gauge aircraft to better leverage traffic flows. It wouldn´t hurt if more options were available to DEN passengers, especially to places like BDL, EWR, and RDU.

With oil prices on the rise, it´s probably becoming important to get the E145s off of the longer routes as well.

Perhaps you should confine your opinions/comments about Bedford and his religious views to Omni as well.

Folks,

Addendum to an earlier post on the free expression of opinion: Religious and political opining are exceptions to the general rule.

So consider this your final boarding call for OMNI/PR aka OMNI/Religion and Politics. Further initiating *or* responding to posts of a religious or political nature is not only off-topic and unacceptable for this program forum, but members who fail to abide this warning will be subject to FT's guideline on Progressive Discipline and not necessarily beginning with the lightest step.

Let's return to the topic of F9's plans for 2011 and get on with making Monday a good one. Thanks.

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essxjay
F9 moderator

Understood BlkueHorseShoe. That;s why I created the post on OMNI/PR a few weeks ago and directed the off topic discussion to it yesterday.

Being based in Barcelona do you fly F9 frequently?

Not at the moment. I moved to Spain this past fall for a two year work assignment.

United (and now Star Alliance carriers) was always my primary carrier. However, I flew Midwest (now Frontier) on a somewhat regular basis.

Those are all reasonable candidates. Back in the YX days there was a good amount of speculation on them setting up another focus city in places like JAX, SDF, BHM, and BDL, but the business model, of course, needed high fares (meaning strong business traffic.) That has changed, although increasingly there are few places without signifcant LCC service already in place. Two places with little LCC action that come to mind are CVG and GSO, but each have their issues.

LOL...no ANC plans. I just don't remember what I post where, and I still think there's a decent shot they'll fly this. Red-eye 3x/week sould not be a big stretch for the summer peak. I do agree that they can't wait too much longer or they'll miss a booking window.

Oil prices are a big question mark, as always, and they are not trending the right way.

I could see them trying another midwest/great plains focus city (see OMA) if they can find the right opportunity. If they have plans for Caribbean expansion or even more Central America service you have to wonder if it makes sense to have a southern focus city where they could connect passengers heading south. I'm not sure how many people would be willing to connect in MKE to head to Jamaica unless they are already in the north. There is a reason B6 and FL have hubs in MCO/FLL.

Man, either I'm lucky or you're not, but I had 8 separate segments on Frontier during December alone and I, as a lowly Ascent, was the first or second person on the aircraft for every single one of them. Ditto for the other flights I've had this year. I've been very happy with the fact that they call "Ascent, Summit, and Classic Plus" tickets _before_ they say anything about families with children, people needing assistance, people with one bag... well I guess before, I'm just assuming because I never hear any of those other announcements, I'm already in my seat with the headphones in and the TV on.

FYI on early boarding, both yesterday and today's trip did...

Yesterday F9 1723 MKE-MCI
Summit, Ascent, and Plus passengers boarded first, then Stretch and other pre-boards were announced.

Today F9 1736 MCI-MKE (I'm using my air card onboard as we're boarding)
Thru pax from LAX were re-boarded first
Summit, Ascent and Plus were boarded next.

I agree. I've always been given the opportunity to board first as a Summit flyer.

Good to know, and thanks for posting. ^

<mod hat>

I just had a thought. Some of the oher airline fora have threads on devoted to boarding issues (both positive and negative) and these threads are especially useful following a merger, significant expansion or contraction at a particular station, when a new station has been added, when irregular ops are in play or for just reporting one-off incidents. Knowing what to expect in terms of airline policy vs. reality is the very reason FT exists. I can start such a thread if you like or feel free to initiate one with the info you've provided above.

</mod hat>

Good to see some contributions from you, ess. Hope to see more in the future.

Rumors have been around that MKE and DEN service were coming to GSO for quite some time...nothing has materialized yet. Perhaps these are part of Bedford's plans alluded to by the OP's article.

I think expensive airports are being looked at and evaluated right now for alternate ones.... If PIE works out I can see TPA being axed. The same may happen with CLE and CAK. As for Canada... I hear they want to attract more airlines and may lower their fees. I hope Frontier can go back to Canada, but I doubt YYZ will be one of them. 2011 should be interesting :)

mlasser could you clarify your statement. I don't think outlier was your intended choice of noun or you thought it meant something else. I am an outlier because I do live far away from my workplace as do most airline crew. Maybe you meant that my particular statistic value is outside other values in a set of data. I think the other posters have put you in that category instead of me. Or where you trying to say that I am somebody who works away from the main body? I work for the company. I get all memos. I work the operation even though I prefer the contract side. I even share FTers thoughts with management. I don't think that outlier is the word you want to use to describe me.

As for GSO I am hopeful that they will at least see a flight or two to MKE so those crews can have a chance to work more than USX and to allow for another MX station for rotation

I think we will see more Mexico before Canada. They are very short on capacity and competition right now.

FT is never been short of apologists for their mama airline. You read the memos. How nice for you. There are equivalents for you on every airline on FT, including the ones that year after year are polled to be the bottom of the barrel. Every airline has it's fans that will defend it to the point they believe it can do no wrong. I don't think F9 needs to worry about people like me who fly almost weekly. I've already booked my next three flights on your competition and from a discussion I had with an FA last week, I'm not the first or last to make that decision.

Yes, in boarding procedures, I see dozens, maybe hundreds of GA's do this a year. You basically know how you do it. That's a sample of one. Outlier was the correct description. One deviating from the mean in a statistically relevant fashion.

Denver has choices from bad to really bad. I'd love to have real international carriers here. UA is cancelling the UK flight which leave us one BA and I think 2 LH. Would love to have JetBlue and Virgin America for domestic. Even more CO domestic would be great. But we basically have Republic and United and Southwest. Really no winning solution.