I doubt that Florida - from ILG or TTN (or DEN) - or Mexico gets many biz travellers and the aircraft are full, not necessarily at "super cheap" fares.

The route map for this winter is not finished yet and there wiil be a couple more surprises, with an emphasis on high-volume - or higher volume - leisure destinations.

As Frontier has said so often, and as reiterated by Motley Fool, the models are Spirit and Allegiant.

It is not a cheaper legacy. It is not some new incarnation of Midwest Airlines nor is it even the old, almost consistently money-losing, Frontier.

The nearby precedent is probably Spirit at LBE, and Spirit at ACY. Both are alternate airports, w/ cheap fares and infrequent service.

At LBE, Spirit has service to DFW, but less than daily. LBE and ACY are a little nicer with jet bridges, but ACY doesn't have free parking.

Locally within the Philly region and competing against F9's TTN and ILG service, at ACY, Spirit has Chicago (ORD), ATL, DTW seasonal, 1x daily, and at times, low fares (sub $100). This is similar to F9 flying 2-4x weekly and offer sub $100 fares, although F9 flies in the winter.

Disclaimer: Non aviation trivia here
HaHa the irony. Did you know your last state is the *First State*?
About 10 years ago the local running community started the annual DE marathon after receiving pressure from running groups that have members who have run marathons in all 50 states, an exclusive group. (Not sure but there had been previous marathons in DE years before but not recently enough for this group. )
Is there a club for you 50 state fliers?
I guess you missed your chance 6 years ago when Delta attempted ILG but called it quits pretty quick. I think they did an awful job of marketing. Hope you are enjoying the state of tax free shopping ;) .

Very pleased with my experience today at ILG. Airport was nice check-in area was large. Waiting area was large too. Though some people didn't see the additional space on the other side of security to wait so the gate area was bit crowded but I was in the other area so I was fine. Flight was full except
I suspect that a lot of them were paying $90-130rt for ILG-IAH

I can only imagine that Frontier would be losing a lot of money if the ILG-IAH flights were full of pax only paying $90-130/rt. It's around 1300 miles.

I was wondering if Frontier would ever consider TTN-PIT or ILG-PIT. What is Frontier's sweet spot in length for short-haul routes? It's probably 350-500 miles, but PIT can be used to reach Cleveland, and TTN can be used to reach Northern NJ which extends the value.

Ever since Southwest ceased the 4x daily service of PHL-PIT, US advance purchased fares have skyrocketed to +$500 r/t. There is great ties between the east side to west side of the state, and the only affordable options are driving, Amtrak or MegaBus.

There is also possibility that the one daily Amtrak train that takes 7 hours might end:
http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...r_service.html

But, PA officials will likely get a deal through.

If not Frontier via PIT-ILG or TTN, maybe Spirit can fly LBE-PHL. I don't foresee any carrier interested in competing directly against US on PHL-PIT, but an alternate airport flies under the radar.

I think it's a good idea, but I still haven't sorted out the future relationship between TTN and ILG - I just assume Florida will be common to both.

TTN is limited to the shorter routes (think about 1100 miles max) because of the runway length, but the real surprise to me has been the strength of TTN-RDU, one of the shortest routes at 373 miles. But arguably ILG-PIT might be the better choice.

Who knows? Assuming all goes to plan Frontier is planning for growth next year - there will be three classes for new pilots this year, the first pilot classes in yonks - so I'm prepared for some surprises.

Jetblue ended nonstop services on PIT-JFK not too long ago also. Likely because the legacies, led by Delta, were price matching and offered better frequency from LGA.

Anyways, I just looked at some advance purchase fares on PIT-NYC (LGA/JFK/EWR) by the legacies for mid September mid week. These fares have also skyrocketed.

And, I just read this, although this is dated:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel...s-route/176693

Richmond and Newport News also have high fares to NYC once Southwest ceased the AirTran PHF-LGA flight and JetBlue ended RIC-JFK.

PIT has high fares to both Philly and NYC, but still has low fares to Baltimore and Chicago because of Southwest and Boston because of JetBlue.

Perhaps PIT-TTN would work as it'd capture some between NYC and Philly.

I checked Frontier's map and couldn't find any short hauls of that distance though. Denver is isolated that there aren't many if any <250 mile routes to another mid-size market from it, so I can't tell if Frontier has comfort in flying routes at that length.

Southwest flies PIT-BWI, which is short, but it has a hub at BWI, so Southwest gets connections and the flight timings permit a Pittsburgh based pax to commute to DC via BWI. ILG could be used to reach Washington but there are tolls and BWI already has low fare access.

Spirit flies CRW-MYR albeit seasonal, but it's only a 7 hour drive from Charleston, WV to Myrtle Beach, SC. Since this is likely purely leisure, I wonder how Spirit operates this route at profit. Almost everyone I know drives to Myrtle Beach, within the < 8 hour range of it.

Regarding F9 and ILG, I think ILG-DTW and ILG-ATL would complement ILG-MDW, but maybe Frontier is cautious about too much flying into Delta's hubs, as perhaps it might trigger Delta to compete diretly. But, if Frontier is it's too cautious about short-hauls like PIT, and too cautious about flying into other hub's like DTW/ATL, I don't know where else it can go to add services at ILG or TTN.

Southwest/AirTran is reducing PHL-ATL to a mere 3x daily and advance purchase fares are $193 one-way. I remember when AirTran operated independently that it had 5x daily and fares advance purchase were around $113 one-way, 2-3 years ago. At only 3x daily, I think Southwest might cease the PHL-ATL routes, which would mean fares would likely go up even higher, but would make an ILG-ATL or TTN-ATL attract even more pax for low fares, unless Spirit gives it a go on PHL-ATL.

I don't think Frontier is averse to short routes. DEN-DRO - 250 miles - is going seasonal, but that's because there isn't enough traffic to support the A319 in winter. It would surely have stayed year round if the E190 or Q400 were still in the fleet.

As you rightly say, there aren't a lot of short routes to major urban centers from DEN, but TTN and ILG are different, probably requiring a different approach. At some point, Frontier is going to have to come to terms with New England, from TTN or ILG.

But it's all a bit hazy, because it seems to be going into a new phase of growth, and there aren't too many ground rules for what this reinvented Frontier might do, certainly with regard to the north-east - it has never been in this situation (TTN/ILG) before. What happened at MKE was hangover Midwest.

Most of the potential routes (that I see) are more like 350-550 miles and there are some anomalies, such as LAN, for example. The DOT has just approved LAN-CUN/PVR, but I'm not sure Frontier would consider TTN-LAN, it may be too close to DTW.

Nor do I have any idea what the potential new investor might have to say. So, for the first time since I started watching Frontier, I'm a wee bit at sea.

So instead, I'm being a bit frivolous. I think ILM would be an interesting one and it is begging for service. I'd love to see ILG-ILM if only because the airline would be flying Wilmington to Wilmington. :-)

I still think there is a market for a TTN-BOS (or BED or ORH) route, although using turboprops - so it is not likely something that Frontier would consider. Might be something that PenAir or Commutair might consider, perhaps as a code share with another airline. I doubt code sharing would work for Frontier under the ULCC model.

A few months ago, I developed a whole theory of Frontier using PSM - Portsmouth, New Hampshire - in the way they use TTN and ILG, as a New England base of operations, if only for service to Florida.

On Tuesday, it is said that an airline will announce that it is starting commercial service at PSM again:

http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/sto.../#.UhFFFRaYm-8

"New Hampshire officials are expected to announce that commercial passenger air service is coming back to the Portsmouth International Airport at Pease.

The announcement is scheduled for Tuesday."

But, a bit sadly for me, the money is on it being Allegiant.

Oh, well - can't win 'em all, I guess. :-)

Davywavy,

I checked and Allegiant tried PSM previously and it did not work for them. That would leave Spirit or Frontier among the ULCCs. Or, it could just be a commuter airline putting service into a hub - maybe a codeshare with US Air to PHL or LGA?

Thanks, I did not know that Allegiant had been at PSM before.

I suppose it could be Frontier (and I'd love to see it) but I'm not holding my breath.

Fronter begins service ILG - Wilmington, Delaware 1 Jul 2013
 

It's Allegiant to Orlando/Sanford

http://portsmouth-nh.patch.com/groups/business-news/p/new-passenger-airline-at-pease-announced

Indeed, and Allegiant has jumped on a few routes I would have liked to see Frontier fly - Bismarck to Orlando, e.g.

Well, well, them's the breaks. I look forward to what next year may bring. :-)

Davy,

Now that I look at their website, Frontier has announced no new service since early July, when they indicated that they would add Fort Myers service out of Delaware. I wonder whether or not a purchase of the airline is close.