It really isn't! Some of the back-and-forth in the when it cames to things like slot exemptions at DCA over the years has been on the ugly side. And it certainly isn't limited to any particular airline.

When my aging dad...who grew up rural and still feels bad about never having gone to high school...moved to an assisted living complex, I told him that he was finally getting to experience high school. The cliquishness, gossip, and petty retaliations in the dining room among these people in their 80's and 90's reminded me greatly of high school. Perhaps the schoolyard scrapping and adolescent behavior doesn't take a break between 18 and 80, at least not in the world of airline business.

When lawyers are retained at $600 an hour they have all the incentive in the world to turn up the rhetoric. A point-by-point response from a competitor just yields yet more opportunity for billable hours. I expect that the regulators responsible have pretty sophisticated BS filters so the approach just leads to higher costs for the industry.

They do make an entertaining read. I'm glad to see Frontier didn't back down but instead really bare its teeth and go after Southwest. I'm afraid it won't be enough especially if the FAA wants to spread out the 'Love'. F9 made some excellent points but not having a base in ORD may hurt them. However, with WN still dealing with the merger and attempting to get everything in line, I doubt they'll be able to properly manage flights to CUN...

I think it might help them that Airtran really doesn't have a large operation in Chicago either. They can claim the WN connection possibilities, but until there is a codeshare in place this shouldn't really count.

I suppose I'm just getting a bit bored with Southwest's bully boy attitude to Frontier.

But - happier things - Apple Vacations has revised its schedule to reflect the early end of USA3000. Here's the ORD schedule, but there's a wee box top right to change to the other airports:

http://www.applevacations.com/flight...way_ord-ohare/

As far as I can tell, the last USA3000 flight is ORD-CUN on January 29.

Frontier takes over everything else except one of the PVR frequencies (Alaska) and Aeromexico still has all ORD-CZM.

For the other Apple cities, Airtran still has all MKE, DTW, BWI, PIT and CMH, Sun Country has MSP, DFW and LAN and JetBlue has JFK (one flight).

Frontier has the rest. Since BB expects the Frontier/Apple flying to nearly double next year, I guess it will be flying some of those other cities.

Davy

Frontier has now applied to the DOT to operate all the PUJ - Punta Cana - Apple charter routes as scheduled routes as well.

Frontier proposes to operate between one and four weekly services on each route using a mix of 138-seat A319 and 162-seat A320 aircraft.

Baltimore - Punta Cana - seasonal

Chicago - Punta Cana - year round

Cincinnati - Punta Cana - seasonal

Clevelend - Punta Cana - seasonal

Denver - Punta Cana - seasonal

Philedelphia - Punta Cana - seasonal

Pittsburg - Puna Cana - seasonal

Rockford - Punta Cana - seasonal

St. Louis - Punta Cana - seasonal

It is starting to look like an effective scheduled take-over of the USA3000 route ,map, without the cost and difficulties of an actual merger.

MBJ - next or not at all? - and then there are ORD-LIR and ORD-HUX.

davy.

Awesome news! I hope at least one of these can be connected to from MKE, I'd love to take a trip down there next winter.

Have to be ORD, I guess.

The problem is that - for this winter - all the Apple Vacations MKE flights are operated by Airtran.

I don't know what the life of the Apple/Airtran contract is, or if Southwest will continue it it it has a longer duration than this winter. However, Frontier has now applied for scheduled PIT-PUJ (in conjunction with Apple) so it looks as if Frontier will be taking over at least that route from Airtran next winter.

davy

It'd be nice if F9 could reinstate MKE-PIT as a repositioning flight to do this flying, but I guess they'll just route one in from DEN instead.

Just curious, though, since they don't currently fly DEN-PIT.

That's more what I was thinking, trying to do a MKE-PIT-CUN routing or MKE-PHL-CUN.

Now SWAPA has weighted in, predictably on behalf of Southwest/Airtran, with certain numbers redacted:

http://www.regulations.gov/#!documen...2011-0214-0010

And Airtran has hit back at Frontier's answer:

http://www.regulations.gov/#!documen...2011-0214-0009

In both cases, click on the pdf icon to read the submissions.

Part of me hopes that it will go to Southwest (Airtran) - because I think the airline would go nuclear against Frontier if it didn't get it.

davy

I find it funny that the swapa commentary includes them trying to book flights at usa3000.com for flights that are ending January 8th and commenting on how they don't provide bookable flights to the public and can't expect frontier to do otherwise.

Isn't first-ever brand new nonstop DEN-Caribbean? Last time UA were never started DEN-SJU after 9/11 attacks.

Can F9 will next a specific new route from DEN-NAS/FPO/GCM/MBJ/KIN?

I believe it may be. The problem with the eastern Caribbean from DEN is distance. DEN-PUJ is right at the very limit of the A319 range from DEN and I understand it will only fly (as a non-stop) in the summer months.

I am guessing that the next move may be for Frontier to apply for scheduled service (in conjunction with the various Apple routes) to MBJ - ORD-MBJ, STL-MBJ, eg.

davy

Enjoy your trip to the Dominican Republic, but don't pack a single valuable item:

http://www.world-airport-codes.com/d...cana-6122.html