Wi-Fi?
 

Does Frontier have GoGo WiFi on its planes? I am taking an ride Monday early AM from ATL to DEN.

Supposedly going to be approved by the FAA soon... Wouldn't expect it on Monday though. My guess would be August-September timeframe and it is only on the E90s.

You won't have WiFi, but DirecTV instead.

GoGo WiFi to finally launch on all E190's in the F9 fleet sometime in October. Access and pricing to be available through http://www.gogoair.com

What about the A320's?

The a320 series aircraft have tv. The reason for adding WiFi to the e170/190 was to give those aircraft technology. Supplementing the lack of tv.

I'd love if this happened eventually but seriously, we just need it on one aircraft first.

If their rollout is fast(thankfully F9 isn't using Row 44), then this makes sense. Otherwise, not starting on your larger aircraft seems like a poor decision. This is where having a smaller fleet works in your favor.

They've been trying to roll this out since November last year. It has been anything but fast.

Very similar to the new website.

I don't see why F9 is having trouble. AA's roll out is moving at a fairly steady pace. I know that the base cost of the system is $85k, so maybe F9 is having money issues.

And to pour salt on the wound....

Gogo Wi-Fi gets 4x speed boost on American Airlines and Virgin America

The impression I'm getting from my industry friends and sources is right now Frontier can't do much of anything right. Not necessarily the Frontier people themselves but the Republic folks in IND who some believe are quite hapless in running F9.

That's too bad. F9 needs a good overall product to stay competitive with the other carriers.

And what exactly would a "good overall product" look like?

An upscale product with IFE, wi-fi and power ports a la VX?

Downsizing the DEN operation and moving into less competitive markets like STL, CVG, etc.?

Serving classic "underserved" markets such as Allegiant?

Modifying the product into an ultra LCC along the likes of Skybus or Spirit?

How much longer is that? When they will approved it? How? Why not A319, A318, A320 aircraft?

I have no clue how running an airline is so difficult. I for one have pipe dreams of working in the airline industry every day (as a consultant of course).

Plus if the source above is correct that it costs $85k to roll out a WiFi system in a plane then I for one need to make sure my I.T. employer becomes certified in this. Imagine the revenue we could bring in if we were able to seal the deal on a couple dozen planes?

Why not? F9 has a smaller fleet size which makes infrastructure upgrades a lot easier than carriers with larger numbers of aircraft. Power ports, and wifi are relatively easy upgrades that can be done during maintenance checks or during an over nite in DEN.

Quite the opposite. I would rather see F9 move to a hybrid like US. It would make them a better fit for a partner airline.

Power ports would be great!

I agree. I think one of their biggest problems is revenue, and one of their best chances of increasing it is marketing Classic Plus better as well as some possible improvements. Also, I think by have some upscale features they can differentiate themselves from the one size fits all WN model (nothing against it and it works very well for them, but F9 should not be a copycat). Open a lounge in DEN and push their incredibly attainable elite levels. One of their biggest problems right now is perception and getting people to try them the first time, as well as giving people reasons to fly them other than bottom of the barrel prices.

Mistake #1 was retaining the Frontier branding. It only resonates with consumers on a regional basis, and pigeonholes them as a regional airline. A neutral branding, accompanied by a new cabin product rolling out wifi, a business class, power ports, etc. would have gone a long way toward differentiating the product versus their competition.

Frontier has a TON of brand equity in DEN. Choosing a different name would have made things even worse.

Trouble is that rolling out a new brand is terribly expensive and does away with the brand image already built. Frontier did not have a negative brand image and coming up with a whole new one would mean starting from scratch.

Using the Midwest brand for the combined airline would have been even more problematic because (a) Midwest was a much less-known brand, especially in the DEN hub which was (at the time and now even more) much larger than MKE+MCI+OMA, and (b) the combined new airline would always suffer in comparision to what the classic YX was.

I don't think that the branding...Frontier, Midwest, or new...would have mad emuch difference in what's happening in Milwaukee. In spite of what others have posted (especially on some other boards) the Midwest name was never a big draw in Wisconsin outside of Milwaukee -- YX was virtually always the smallest airline in every Wisconsin outstation they served through their entire history, usually by a large margin. That was even true in Appleton. That's not to say that YX didn't have loyal passengers in their feeder markets. Cetainly not. But even in Appleton, the outstation where Midwest had the biggest presence and biggest history, it was always an also-ran behind NW and UA, and when DL came into the market it quickly passed YX and took away the ATW-ATL segment with a nonstop RJ flight.

With the recent cuts to feeder cities, I've seen an underlying narrative from some that Wisconsin's loyalty to Midwest was squandered with the name change. That doesn't really square with history in my opinoin.

I do think that Frontier was the right decision, but I think they have missed the opportunity to really roll out a better Frontier -- both to Denver and to the former YX strongholds. Hindsight is 20/20, I suppose.

Gogo website says that F9 Wi-Fi is to be available by the end of 2011.

http://www.gogoair.com/gogo/cms/frontier.do