Indigo buys Frontier
 

Indigo partners has agreed to buy Frontier pending negotiations with labor unions. Only article right now is behind a paywall at WSJ but more articles to come when it gets formally announced later this morning.

Here's the Denver Post article. Looks like they probably just spun the WSJ piece you mentioned.

And here's a piece from the Denver Business Journal:

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/ne...-airlines.html

Official press release:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix....210&highlight=

Should we book all are award travel now?

if you google the name of the article and then click on the link via google, you can bypass the paywall.

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=Bill+Franke...ntier+Airlines

Indigo Airlines
 

[QUOTE=kvs25;21535239]if you google the name of the article and then click on the link via google, you can bypass the paywall.

Is this the same Indigo of the Indigo group: Indigo Airlines

https://book.goindigo.in/

I'm booking mine just to be safe

How long before they merge with Spirit? :td:

The handwriting was on the wall.

I used the last of my award travel in March. :):)

i just apply the credit card......

Probably not. I don't think ever they merge with NK.

Curious where this will go to now and how fast they will change the airline. Counting my days where Summit is actually worth something.

I think that everything that needs to be said about Frontier's current financial straits is encapsulated in the fact that after a potential sale announcement there are 13 posts on FT after 36 hours.

There is a 153 post thread on another board, apparently FTers just aren't F9 fans.

I used to be .... sigh

I just made Ascent a few months ago, and will be hitting summit at the end of this month. Argh!

Anybody have any predictions for how IndiGo will change Frontier? I am not familiar with them, and their wikipedia article was pretty clearly written by their marketing department.

Just look at Spirit or Allegiant to see where this will probably go to.

Very disapointing, I really do like Frontier. Made Summit last year after considering jumping full time from Delta, through a very generous status match, but unfortunately the F-9 schedules (every other day schedules to some locations, etc) and only 2 departures a day from OKC just wasn't practical for me very well. Ended up splitting all my flying this year between Delta (love the upgrades) and Southwest (love the one way availability of awards, award price based on actual cost, and easy to maintain A list while still keeping DL Gold). Was really hoping F-9 would grow, and become more user friendly for my needs, but this doesn't bode well, even if they add flights that I need, I'm not doing Allegiant or Spirit style travelling. Just to be safe, I went ahead and booked a trip to use up my miles on F9, probably will be my last flight I'm afraid. I'm optimistic that this might be a good thing, and that a capital infusion might add to the schedule, and expand the airline a bit while keeping the brand, but not holding my breath, and definetely wanted to get my miles used, before they're devalued partially, or completely.

Where?

Airliners.net civil aviation forum
The Frontier talks stall thread has morphed into talk about the deal.

To be clear, it is not IndiGo (the Indian airline) that is purchasing F9, but Indigo Partners. Search 'indigo bill franke' to get more info on them. There isn't a lot of info on them, but they have a long history with LCC/ULCC airlines - Wizzair, Volaris, Spirit, Tigerair, Avianova.. Look through their offerings a little to get an idea of what expect, as they seem adopt each other's ideas.

I hope they don't mess with the tails of the planes.

I hope they could do good things with it, but who knows, they could mess up everything.

The tails could very possibly disappear, should Indigo decide to re brand the product.

If they are going to focus on cost, they may disappear as they have to install new vinyl tails every often and have to pay royalties to the photographers who shoot the pictures of the animals. I don't know how much each costs.

I can't think why they would rebrand, since Denver (and the tails) are major reasons why Indigo bought Frontier:

http://www.azcentral.com/business/ne...-airlines.html

"Franke said he was attracted in part to Frontier’s strong customer base in Denver, where the airline famous for the animals painted on its planes is headquartered and has a hub.

“It’s a well-known airline and highly regarded in the Rocky Mountain area,’’ he said in an interview."

Similarly, and despite s lot of speculation to the contrary, Indigo does not intend to leave DEN - or seriously downsize there. Instead he expects growth:

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingne...o-partners-llc

"Frontier to stay in Denver after sale to Indigo Partners

"As the airline grows, inevitably all parts of the airline grow, and with Denver as the headquarters, you would expect to see growth there," said Franke, a former CEO of America West Airlines."

I'm not aware that Frontier pays a royalty for the tail photos - they never used to do so. As I understand it, they make a one-off (not huge) payment to the photographer. Given what the animal tails do for the brand, I think it's money well spent.

Well, but, the animals are there because Frontier's slogan is "a different kind of animal". If they turn it into a clone of Spirit, then that slogan will no longer fit, and therefore the animals on the tails will no longer fit. (Plus if they turn it from the unique beast it is now into a clone of Spirit, it won't be regarded highly in the Rocky Mountain area or anywhere else any more.)

They haven't used "A whole different animal" as the slogan for some time - none of the new aircraft have it - and the animals are still there. The animals were there before it was "A whole different animal," the animals were there when the slogan was "The Spirit of the West."

And the airline is like Spirit now, in the ULCC sense, and it is enjoying record load factors - 94% in August. The more like a ULCC it has become, the higher the load factors have been.

Frontier's latest livery doesn't reference a whole new animal. Still has the tails but replaces Frontier with their website flyfrontier.com

Frontier Airlines Airbus A319-112 - N954FR (New FLYFRONTIER.COM livery) by Cary Liao, on Flickr
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7323/8...c7947c2e0a.jpg

I'd expect more punitive carryon/checked bag fees. $20/25 is too soft. Spirit charges ~30/40 range. Refundable fares will disappear. Complimentary water (in a cup) will not be offered. Only for sale food and drink. We'll probably get higher density sardine can seating.

I'm curious if they will come up with creative new fees.

On the bright side, itcould add more routes with obvious low fares that Southwest and the legacies don't offer.

Will Frontier lose their own forum here at FT? Spirit doesn't have a forum. It's just one "Spirit -- some more observations" thread in the Other North & South America Frequent Flyer Programs.

Maybe or maybe not, Ryan Air offers the same 30" pitch that Frontier does. I would expect lighter seats to be installed never the less.

As someone who's just as interested in the business of airlines as the actual passenger experience, I have to say I'm duly impressed with the way F9 reivented itself over the past year. From bankruptcy to sought-after sale in record time, more airlines could benefit from their record. I believe this was a rare case of an airline cutting costs and then doing a pretty good job of passing those savings on to the customer. There is a huge market for no-frills flying, and Frontier has written the book on it. To them, I say congratulations