It did not okay, but not great - partly because Allegiant was flying GSO-SFB, perhaps, but also because of the issue I raised in the previous post - what to do with it when winter is over?

At that time, Frontier was going through the massive restructure of the fleet - the Republic E190's were going, as were the A318's and the more expensive A319 leases. Aircraft were at a premium and were needed for the more lucrative routes.

Also, Republic didn't provide Frontier with its own capital, it came from general (Republic) fund and once separation was decided, Republic closed access to the money. Frontier had to operate on its own cash flow and couldn't afford to nurse anything.

Under different circumstances, some of the MCO routes might have survived - SHD, for example, or perhaps GSO.

Now, things are different, and Indigo is providing Frontier with the capital it needs - they're spending $30 million on new seats and hiring scores (hundreds?) of pilots and f/a's, for example.

William Franke (Indigo CEO) has deep pockets, big iron balls and a wealth of airline knowledge, so the attitude has changed as well. The first example of it was probably CLE-MCO, which is an established (seasonal) Southwest route - the first direct challenge.

The philosophy that guided TTN is still the same - large populations with limited LCC service - but now it is being applied to primary airports, such CLE and IAD.

So I don't know what is going to happen. MCO is now up to nine routes (assuming the seasonals come back) and I would not fall over in shock to see more.

And while some think that Southwest's IAD-LAS is a jab at Frontier, it is more likely because Southwest doesn't have beyond perimeter slots (at DCA) for LAS or SAN, two of its biggest markets, so IAD has strategic value. But at the same time, Southwest has dropped CLE-LAS, suggesting that Southwest doesn't see much strategic value at CLE - perhaps because it has CAK. Would Frontier take on Southwest? Already has. Frontier's CLE-LAS was announced before Southwest dropped the route.

Southwest is also cutting IAD-MDW back to 2 x daily (from 6 x) while it beefs up DCA-MDW, but this leaves at least some IAD-ORD traffic on the table for Frontier.

Would this new Frontier take on Jetblue? Yeh, probably. It's a different ball game now. I don't think it will be dull, though. :-)

Maybe GSO-MCO is not worth restarting.

But the MCO/SFB demand from flight from the other markets, maybe north of Washington DC region, seems more steady, and more steady than the demand to other Florida cities such as FLL, TPA and RSW.

e.g. Southwest will fly PHL-MCO 4x daily in the summer, 5x daily in the winter, but not a huge increase when it goes to 5x or decrease when it goes back to 4x. That's why I was thinking is still large enough for maybe some less than daily return on ABE-MCO since many from that region might be supporting WN or B6 (out of EWR) rather than their local airport.

Also maybe service to SWF maybe to capture Bergen County, NJ (NJ's wealthiest county) and SWF's local area of the
Poughkeepsie-Newburgh MSA, where a smaller airport maybe closer or more convenient than EWR from areas north of EWR.

MCO is also a market Frontier likes to use, as most focus cities start off with MCO. ILG has more MCO service than other Florida service. MDT has MCO, and of course TTN, CLE and IAD all were linked to MCO.

An interesting test would be if Frontier chose to compete on CVG-MCO maybe 4x weekly against Delta and Allegiant. Spirit and Delta somehow work in DTW, without Delta having a reaction. But Delta is more reactive to JetBlue but so far, it seems Delta maybe treating Frontier like Spirit than JetBlue.