Frontier's site has service extended to January 5.

There is no ILG-FLL service in December. I understand September is a slow travel period, but December would be the start of the peak season for So. Florida.

Anyways with LCCs like Frontier or Spirit, I bet many just book travel within two or three weeks, and January is still far off. Frontier might announce launching it.

It would be completely out of character for Frontier to sneak in a new city, any new city, just on a schedule extension.

I've no idea if they are planning ILG-FLL, but if they are it would be announced separately, with some hoopla, and usually not until about three months before service begins.

So far, ILG seems to be following the TTN model, with an expansion of ILG-MCO (4 x weekly) and ILG-TPA staying as it is.

Frontier begins service from Wilmington (ILG) starting July 1
 

I hadn't seen a posting about this, so was surprised by the commercial during The Daily Show last night.

See http://www.flyfrontier.com/specials/...als/wilmington

Flights to DEN, IAH, MDW, MCO, and TPA using A320s

With service now from TTN, ACY, and ILG, I guess those of us who live in Center City and the Main Line will be the only ones left flying from PHL.

I assume that's tongue in cheek, given Frontier's low frequency of service, and particularly at ILG, the limited terminal facilities. And PHL is much closer than ACY or TTN for most of the NJ suburbs of Philly. (Frontier doesn't serve ACY near as I can tell, only Spirit)

Frontier may make it work at ILG and TTN at current or somewhat larger volumes, but neither facility is positioned to be a true PHL reliever from either a geographical or facility design standpoint.

You won't see many Frontier airline service announcements in the USAirways Dividend Miles forum.

On the other hand, there's a 75-post thread at <this thread> in the Frontier forum.

Frontier begins service from Wilmington (ILG) starting July 1
 

I'm wondering why they aren't flying ABE instead of/in addition to TTN and ILG.

ABE has high fees, like landing fees.

Even parking:
$14/day as the lowest cost long-term parking is overpriced. There is no rail to ABE either. One thing Frontier and Spirit want is customers to experience low parking costs when use of alternate airports applies, and Frontier advertises that about of Wilmington in the commercial.

However, Spirit, and Frontier to a small extent, have no qualms collecting bag fees and all sorts of fees, but those go to the airline. In some ways, Spirit figures that if someone is using Latrobe in Pittsburgh area and saving so much in parking, they will bear a fee to Spirit, given that the entire trip budget will be lower still. Given that it works with Spirit, Frontier is somewhat following that approach.

ABE should be $8-$10/day economy parking to be competitive for more LCC service.

ABE can pull in people just as Dorney Park does which is minutes away. Dorney Park attracts customers from NJ and Philly. It's success is partially by having a lower price point than Six Flags. The ABE experience has to be that way too.

As far as ACY, Spirit would likely price match against Frontier. I think Frontier could be competitive for service to MDW/ATL etc. when Spirit doesn't fly daily after September, and maybe the two could co-exist. But, I guess Frontier has to see how ILG does now, before introducing a third airport to the mix to bracket Philly.

There was an ugly financial dispute between Frontier and ABE, as in this article:

http://articles.mcall.com/2013-01-09...-fuel-jet-fuel

"Did a $1 million bonus lose LVIA an airline?

Airport's new contract with World Fuel is prompting Frontier Airlines to pull out."

ABE obviously defends itself against the comments made by the Frontier CEO but while it may be true that they got dispensation for a year for Frontier (from increased fuel prices), it was only for that year.

It was a great pity, because ABE-MCO was gangbusters and Frontier had plans to expand there. I have my fingers crossed that it may be resolved one day and Frontier goes back, but the strength at TTN may be playing against it, at least for now.

Threads regarding service initiation 1 Jul 2013 to ILG / Wilmington have been merged.

JDiver
senior moderator

I thought the topic would be relevant to US Dividend Miles members living around PHL. Not necessarily because we would all now rush to fly Frontier, but rather to discuss what this decision may mean for US prices from PHL and what it says about future development of air travel around a US hub.

For example, what effect would drawing away leisure O/D travelers from PHL have on the potential mix of flights that US will operate from PHL and fares for those flights? Might this decision influence other low cost carriers currently flying from PHL to either increase or decrease service, etc.?

Theoretically, it shouldn't make much difference at all. It is a very limited number of flights and the star of the show - DEN-ILG - is simply restoring the balance to what it was when Frontier flew DEN-PHL not so long ago.

As at TTN, Frontier is bottom fishing at ILG, at least in the early stages. As they have said, many folk started using TTN for the low prices, even if they are now staying for the convenience as well. But even if there is a loyal following developing at TTN, and there may be, I doubt that still comparatively small amount of traffic is going to cause too many changes at PHL.

But of course, I coud be wrong.

Delta has always been a wolf at any incursion (by Frontier) of its turf, but it seemed to accept Frontier's TTN-ATL/DTW like a lamb. Now, however, Delta is starting PHL-RDU and is that any reaction to Frontier's - surprising to me - success on TTN-RDU or is it just coincidence? My vote is the latter - because Delta seems to be developing a good little focus city at RDU and PHL fits in with that - but am I being naive?

It's entirely possible, I guess, that there will be changes at PHL - but perhaps more because of the US/AA merger than because of anything Frontier is doing at ILG. One of the keys may be how Frontier develops ILG - assuming it does - and the balance between TTN and ILG is still not clear to me.

I don't think Delta will consider ILG or TTN esp. with Frontier flying less than daily. Flying less than daily keeps Frontier under the radar. :)

Also, it's over 500 miles to ATL atleast, though DTW is closer.

Also, the big carriers like to be at the main airport of the region.

Now, I question the viability of Southwest flying PHL-ATL in a couple of years esp. as Southwest has plans to dehub ATL and relinquish the AirTran 717 planes. What that might result in is increased interest on Frontier for flying to ATL from TTN or ILG, if Southwest ceases service from PHL.

It's also interesting and bizarre that Southwest dropped PHL-HOU, but Frontier has ILG-IAH, thus Frontier is offering a nonstop to Houston unlike Southwest even though Southwest essentially has a huge focus city there in HOU. When JetBlue added BOS-HOU, Southwest responded. What might be interesting but bad for Frontier is if Southwest considers ILG! ILG-HOU, ILG-ATL, ILG-TPA, ILG-MCO for example.

There is a school of thought - which originated in Milwaukee - that Frontier and Delta are much better friends now.

http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee....html?page=all

"Was convention center sponsorship part of larger Delta-Frontier deal?"

The extension is that Delta will turn a blind eye to Frontier as long as it doesn't tread too hard on Delta's toes. Delta will still compete with Frontier, of course, but nothing like what it did at MCI.

So far it's worked out. Delta hasn't responded to TTN-ATL/DTW. You could argue that Delta starting PHL-RDU is a but of a swing at Frontier's TTN-RDU, but if Delta really wanted Frontier to feel pain, it would hit much harder.

Delta didn't seriously respond to Frontier's DEN-CVG. Again, there could be reasons for this, it's a route to a Frontier hub, which is considered "acceptable" - but there is a case to be made that MCO was a hub, or at least a focus city, as well.

The test of it would be if Frontier started, say, CVG-MCO a couple of times a week.

I dunno if there is any truth to it - but it's an interesting theory. :-)

10 days out from the first flight and almost every flight has 80-90% of seats booked throughout the entire month. Looks like Wilmington Airport has a future.

It will be interesting to see what that future is, especially the winter schedule. They've upped ILG-MCO to 4 x weekly in December and I'm guessing there will be more Florida.

I wouldn't be surprised if they may make ILG-IAH summer seasonal and use that aircraft for, say, ILG-FLL or even RSW.

I'd like to see something more exotic from ILG - Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands - but that may be just a pipe dream. :-)