Frontier Launches Service from TTN to 3 New Airports
 

Frontier Airlines Launches Service from Trenton-Mercer Airport to Three New Airports

DENVER, Colo., Feb. 12, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - Frontier Airlines today launches
nonstop service from Trenton-Mercer Airport to Charlotte, NC (CLT), and Cincinnati, Ohio (CVG).
Tomorrow, nonstop service will start to Cleveland, Ohio (CLE).

Frontier is the only airline providing scheduled service out of Trenton-Mercer Airport, the
gateway to New Jersey's state capital, all of central New Jersey, and Southeast Pennsylvania,
including metro Philadelphia.

With these new markets, Frontier now offers 14 total nonstop destinations from Trenton-Mercer
Airport.

* Atlanta
* Charlotte
* Chicago-Midway
* Cincinnati
* Cleveland
* Detroit
* Fort Lauderdale
* Fort Myers
* Indianapolis
* Nashville
* Orlando
* Raleigh / Durham
* Tampa
* St. Augustine / Jacksonville area

"We are excited to give our customers three new destinations with convenient flights from
Trenton-Mercer Airport," said Daniel Shurz, Frontier's senior vice president, commercial. "Even
more customers can now take advantage of our ultra-low fares and consumer options and enjoy an
airport with fewer hassles and convenient parking, while skipping the congested and expensive
Newark and Philadelphia airports."

"We are so excited to welcome our friends from Charlotte, N.C., and Ohio's Cleveland and
Cincinnati areas, and I'm certain they will appreciate the benefits and convenience of
Trenton-Mercer Airport, and all that the Mercer County region has to offer. Frontier continues to
provide Mercer's traveling public a convenient and affordable option to reach the destinations
they desire, and we look forward to its continued growth," said Mercer County Executive Brian M.
Hughes.

All Frontier flights from Trenton/Princeton operate on 138-seat Airbus 319 aircraft, which offer
many customer amenities, including five rows of comfortable STRETCH seating with an additional six
inches of legroom, and the airline's SELECT seating product. Frontier's website, FlyFrontier.com
is the only place STRETCH and SELECT seating is available at the time of booking.

For more information or to purchase a Frontier flight, visit FlyFrontier.com, where Frontier
guarantees you will find the best travel value for Frontier flights.

Sign up for email updates at FlyFrontier.com/email-alert to receive special discounts and
promotions only available to Frontier's email subscribers. Special offers are also available by
following us on Twitter at Twitter.com/FlyFrontier or by liking us on Facebook at
Facebook.com/FlyFrontier.

Following is the schedule for Frontier's new service from Trenton-Mercer Airport:

Trenton/Princeton- Charlotte** (beginning Feb. 12, 2014)
Route Effective Frequency Aircraft
Charlotte Feb. 12, 2014 Mon/Wed/Thurs/Sun A319

Trenton/Princeton- Cincinnati** (beginning Feb. 12, 2014)
Route Effective Frequency Aircraft
Cincinnati Feb. 12, 2014 Mon/Wed/Fri A319

Trenton/Princeton - Cleveland** (beginning Feb. 13, 2014)
Route Effective Frequency Aircraft
Cleveland Feb. 13, 2014 Thurs/Sun A319

**Flight times vary by day of the week. Visit FlyFrontier.com for the full schedule.

About Frontier Airlines

Currently in its 20th year of operations, Frontier offers ultra-low fares with customer choices to
more than 75 destinations in the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica and the Dominican
Republic. The airline employs more than 3,800 aviation professionals, operating from its primary
hub at Denver International Airport. For in-depth information on Frontier Airlines and to book
tickets, visit FlyFrontier.com.

This article was originally distributed on PRWeb. For the original version including any
supplementary images or video, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/02/prweb11579245.htm
http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroo...eb11579245.htm

CONTACT: Frontier Airlines
Kate O'Malley
[email protected]
+1 (720) 374-4560

What would the next ones most likely be?

I'm guessing a few Ms
-Memphis, TN (no nonstop to PHL soon)
-Minneapolis, MN (very high fares to EWR and PHL on the nonstops by the legacy airlines).

Milwaukee has reasonable fares to PHL for some reason, LGA and BWI, but it's high to EWR on UA, so I'm not sure if the market will support it as much.

There is also Buffalo, NY which is a major region.

I'd love to see shorter routes as well, including Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Boston but these maybe viewed as too short. However, a drive to Raleigh while maybe longer in length by one hour drive is an easier drive typically with less swervy roads than Pittsburgh, no NYC traffic compared to Boston, warmer weather greeting you at the destination, and yet TTN-RDU is doing very well for Frontier.

The F9/TTN groupies here (I am among them) love to guess what destinations will be next.

While the 3 Ms are possible, there is a 4th M that I would think might be even better, at least seasonally - Myrtle Beach.

But there is another question here -- what are the present cities to which frequency of service will be increased?

In May, RDU and MDW go to daily, and ATL and DTW go to 6x/week, MCO stays at 5x/week. F9 will have 60 flights/week out of TTN; at 7 flights/gate/day, they could squeeze in up to 98/week (TTN would have to reopen the remote parking).

Would ATL and DTW go to daily (and maybe even MCO, at least during summer when school is out)? Can you see an increase in service frequency at the other destinations?

Also, in terms of more fully utilizing TTN, what about moving to A320s? They have similar runway requirements to the A319. Gibraltar, which has a slightly shorter runway, has the A320 going as far as Manchester, UK, which is over 1000 nm away.

Also, what about the proposed bond to make further improvements to the terminal and move the Airport Offices to leased space just outside the airport? Would that space in the terminal that is now offices be used for an additional gate? Or perhaps just more seating to allow accommodations for 2 A 320s simultaneously?

A lot of questions, I know.....

I would like to see daily flight from TTN-UST and also, I would like to bring more new nonstop from TTN-PHX as well.

With the A-319 or A-320, Trenton's short runway (6006') is not going to be used for flights that are more than 1000 nm, so PHX and DEN are probably both out.

I continue to mourn for the demise of F9's A318s, which I think could have probably done TTN-DEN.

Perhaps, I think that I can see E90 from DEN/PHX-TTN. I think E90 is the right choice.

Another poster elsewhere pointed out a plane for this purpose. Bombardier's new C series, particularly the CS 300, would be a really good fit for an airport like Trenton. The CS 300 can seat about the same as the A319, and is capable of doing 1,500 nm with a runway of just over 5,000 ft. That would reach DEN, although not PHX. I don't recall what runway is required for MTOW, nor what the range is.

There's a reason that only 79 A318's have been ordered ... it's just not efficient, and for an airline trying to be an ULCC, they can't afford to start with an inefficient new aircraft (I say new aircraft because Allegiant has proven you can go with inefficient old aircraft as long as you get them cheap enough).

Efficiency regarding fuel and such is debatable; but you can't beat the "efficiency" of not having to re-certify F9 pilots for the 318, since it's the same as a 319 or 320 in that respect.

With Republic out of the picture for E90s, the 318 would have been a nice fill-in for some of these short-runway, tertiary market situations F9 is trying to do.

The main reason Frontier took the A318's was because of a great deal with Airbus, who needed a launch customer as other airlines were cancelling it.

It was always a difficult aircraft, sadly, and heavy, as most double shrinks are. Its cost were almost the same as the A319, but it carried fewer passengers, so could make less money, even on good days.

These days, in a low fare environment with high fuel, the A319 is headed in the same direction, the airlines are moving to larger aircraft.

Airbus has sold almost 2000 of the A320Neo, more than 500 x A321Neo, and 39 of the A319Neo - 20 of them to Frontier, and that may be because because of TTN's runway, the A319 has very good short field performance.

It was the same with the E190. With Frontier's average fares it had to be effectively full to make money, and it was a hangar queen.

Jetblue has had quite a time when the E190 from the git-go, as here:

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/art...rofits-385172/

"Embraer maintenance costs cut into JetBlue's profits"

And here:

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article...._p0-571968.xml

"JetBlue CEO Laments Embraer 190 Costs"

No one seems to have solved the problem of 100-120 seat passenger seat jet, at least at the the LCC's, yet. For legacy airlines, it is a different cost equation, generally higher fares.

I suppose my question, is can you really connect flights with Frontier? I mean even if you could, Im in Cleveland, I could hop the flight to TTN, but thats on a sunday, its going to be slower, how long of a layover will I have? Whats the draw with this low frequency structure. Its very frustrating, yet its proven fine for their business model.

F9 doesn't offer thru flights in TTN or connections in TTN. I know it has a thru flight on TTN-MDW-DEN but that's a thru in MDW. The flight legs aren't discounted really (it's not like TTN-MDW-DEN is cheaper in fare than TTN-MDW) whereas other carriers like Southwest does discount flights as such (e.g. WN discounts BWI-MDW-MSP and it's cheaper in fare often than BWI-MDW. Same with PHL-ATL-JAX that's cheaper often than PHL-ATL. WN also does a lot of thrus, with no plane change, like PHL-DEN-SFO that has been operated for years. The no plane change is good for pax that can't afford a nonstop but want the second best thing to getting a nonstop. But personally, I like getting out of the plane for a long flight if I can't get a nonstop).

Besides TTN-MDW-DEN, does F9 have any thru flights?

Spirit has thru flights and connections sold, but I don't think it discounts it like Southwest and the legacies. I wonder if Frontier will adopt an approach like Spirit (although I doubt connections will ever be offered at TTN).

And then there were 17 (destinations):

http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...m_Trenton.html

If you were guessing MKE, MSP and STL as future destinations - give yourself a gold star!

That means 70 flights/week by June. The short-term issue will be parking - I venture that they will have to re-open those temporary lots at the east side of the airport and bring in the buses.

They are also looking at Denver service (I assume they will need the A319neo for that) and additional options next winter - Nassau anyone? (Trenton Mercer INTERNATIONAL Airport...).

What does this leave as possible destinations for TTN, that are > 400 nm but less than 1000 nm? Memphis and Myrtle Beach?

I guessed JAX, STL, and MSP as the next 3 cities back in November, close enough for me!

That's my guess for the 'talks' - getting a customs facility. If they ever announce DEN, they can also fly to Montego Bay, Cancun, Cozumel, and Punta Cana as they are all within the same range. Frontier might even be able to do those seasonally in the winter even sooner, as lower temps mean less runway needed, and they can operate in a lower range Dec-March.

MCI, and the outside contenders of SAV, CHS, and GSO. Something in the FL panhandle is a possibility, but I doubt there is enough traffic heading there (more of a regional destination for the SE).