Article about Frontier Delaware pullout
 

Didn't see this posted yet but it's on USA Today's site:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayi...vice/29462763/


Quote from the article:

Delaware Economic Development Director Alan Levin said he was not surprised by Frontier's withdrawal.

"Truthfully, they did not make a firm commitment to the service," he said. "When you continue to change your offerings, people will lose faith in what is being provided. When I book a ticket, I want to know I'm going to be getting on a plane without the flight being canceled."


Just about sums it up if you ask me. No loyalty or confidence will be built up by the constant changes. Certainly other airlines change things all the time, but Frontier doesn't appear to be making a good name for themselves in many of these smaller markets (I guess they don't care about the blowback when they leave a region, since those people are no longer their customers... as long as they have no plans to return in the future anyway.)

Of course in this market, the local people are still potential customers at PHL.

Local coverage:

http://www.delawareonline.com/story/...ware/29327411/

Yes, it also upgraded PHL-MCO to 3x daily for the winter. That extra daily could be viewed to the equivalent of the capacity it offered from ILG-MCO.

Maybe Allegiant can make ILG work. There are other airports/markets (like MDT) that Allegiant has shown desire or been able to work, while Frontier has decided to end.

Not only for Delaware, but if one is in the western suburbs of Philly, like Exton-Malvern, ILG is still closer than ACY or TTN for the alternative to PHL airport experience.

I used to fly this airline every now and then. It was a decent product. Now with all the changes to schedules, etc., there is not a chance I would - no guarantee your flight will be there when it comes time to fly.

Did anyone notice how many airlines have tried to operate out of thos airport and failed ?

Prehaps, not withstanding the local officials to the contrary that there are not enough passengers willing to travel to this airport to support the operations of a commercial airline ?

The planes flew in and out of ILG full. That demonstrates that the passengers are there... in fact in my experience many drove down from PA and NJ. But I do realize no one is making money selling $49 tickets...

The apparently people were only willing to travel to this airport if prices were below cost.

If the airlines were making money they wouldn't pull out.

ILG's history is an unfortunate one - the last major who was here (Delta) left after realizing selling $500 tickets to ATL two flights a day wasn't sustainable.

F9 was the first time service here did work. They flew to destinations people wanted to go for affordable fares. I don't think the issue was that they didn't make money. The issue here is the amount of money they could make over time was severely capped in a one gate facility versus what they are capable of doing at a station like PHL. Flying out of PHL is certainly the better use of aircraft for F9. But I don't think ILG operated at a loss.

If loads were high and the route isn't profitable, this means that the carrier can't charge a high enough fare to make money. "Full" is a meaningless term because it does not reflect profitability. PRASM, PRASM, PRASM.

Correct. My full load comment was in response to the statement that the airport was unable to draw passengers.

I emailed a senior executive at Allegiant to encourage them to look into ILG, and they responded, that they are currently in negotiations with the airport and to stay tuned.

Thats good news for ILG. I only flew out of there once but I did enjoy the airport, hopefully G4 will bring back service to the airport.

That would be good news indeed. Although I just went thru the process of booking a r/t from ABE on the website and if you thought F9's fees were bad...

But some service is certainly better than no service at all.