Jerseyguy

Well as I expected the cuts are due to the retirement of older aircraft (A319CEO)

http://staugustine.com/news/local-ne...ustine-service
(Westgate refers to Bob Westgate, senior director of schedules for Frontier Airlines)

flyallegheny

At the end of the day, TTN is in a tough geography for everyone to get to.

If you live in Philadelphia, PHL is more convenient. If you live in Southern NJ, PHL is probably more convenient. If you live in Northern NJ, EWR is more convenient, and there's not a good highway to TTN. If you don't have a car, you're out of luck, since there's no essentially no transit to TTN.

If you live in Bucks County PA or Central NJ, then TTN is great. Otherwise...

Jerseyguy

Yep, thats a fair statement. TTN could remedy that atleast partially very easy by running the shuttle the 1 mile or so to the SEPTA station in Ewing. That would help Philadelphia area travelers. Plus there are plans to move the West Trenton SEPTA station next to a new terminal area and Town Square which is on the same tracks and on the other side of Airport property. Eventual plans might even include a NJ transit line to New York.

Also King of Prussia, Norristown, Willow Grove, Horsham and Plymouth meeting. I don't know if you ever had the pleasure of getting thru downtown Philly but even on the Blue Route (I-476) it can be a hassle. That notwithstanding there is about 2 to 2.5 million people in TTN's catchment where its easier than EWR or PHL. The routes will be back in April/Early May, its partially due to a shortage of aircraft due to a opportunity to return older aircraft to the lessor and delays on the A320NEO delivery.

beyondhere

For South Jersey, it depends. If one lives around Exit 31 of I-295 and up north, it's a straight shot up I-295 to Exit 60, and taking 29. If one down by Gloucester County than they have to go through that construction zone of I-295.

Going through PHL from South Jersey requires driving over bridges (Walt Whitman, Girard Point Bridge), and commuter traffic dependent of time of day. Parking and convenience is also cheaper/easier at TTN than PHL.

Also some people might be able to use Trenton Transit Center and a cab. I see that Uber also services NJ and fares maybe cheaper using Uber, between the train station and TTN.

Often1

Even for those for whom TTN might be convenient, it only takes IRROPS and having to either sit somewhere until an aircraft can be located or buying a ticket on another carrier and winding up back at PHL/EWR and taking a cab to TTN to recover the car you left there, to wipe out a whole lot of savings.

The lure here is to people who see what appear to be ultra-low fares on a website and don't consider the other costs. Unfortunately, many of them are budget travelers who really get hit hard when they have to house & feed their family & miss work when they learn that interline is a foreign word.

beyondhere

I have noticed that AA and UA are selling very cheap CLT-EWR nonstop fares. One can verify by checking kayak and the other sites.

I wonder if AA is fare matching CLT-TTN via EWR, hoping to depress Frontier sales so that Frontier ceases CLT-TTN and doesn't resume it ever.

It's just strange given that US/AA used price high on that route. I presume AA is setting low fares forcing UA to fare match. I saw low DFW-EWR nonstop fares on both carriers which maybe from AA wanting to keep all DFW-NYC fares competitive against VX and WN, forcing UA also to not be able to charge hub captive fares out of EWR. The low fares on CLT-EWR nonstop is more surprising though and less explainable unless it's against F9 at TTN.

Jerseyguy

A few things about that. Yes F9 doesn't have an interline agreement so if your flight is canceled then you won't likely be put on another airline and that could have a negative impact on your travel. However a few things to realize, In September 2015. Frontier operated 7873 flights and canceled only 21 of them or 0.3% which was a less percentage than American (Mainline), Jetblue, United Express (Expressjet), Envoy (American regional carrier), Skywest (AA/UA/DL), Spirit and Southwest. So most people do not get their flights canceled out of TTN. Also Frontier has increased many flights to daily (increasing your chances of getting rebooked sooner) and offers alot of the TTN routes out of PHL. Also just because airlines interline doesn't mean your going to get home the same day or next day if your flights cancel. Flights are flying with a smaller number of empty seats everyday.

beyondhere

Spirit is adding PHL-FLL service. So, it will be:

AA - PHL-MIA/FLL hub-to hub, hub-spoke
B6 - PHL-FLL spoke-hub
NK - PHL/ACY-FLL spoke-hub
WN - PHL-FLL/PBI (seasonally only - only 4 months during peak season)
F9 - PHL-MIA and TTN-FLL/PBI (seasonally?)

I think F9's PHL-MIA is the most marginal route of the competing services, as AA has been fare matching them. Maybe that helps F9 at TTN if they figure strategically that some routes are better served from TTN.

Frontier's TTN crowd draws from Northern and Central NJ also. so it has that benefit that even PHL is a bloodbath for Florida that TTN can still pull from where EWR is not a bloodbath. I flew TTN-MCO a week or so ago, and noticed from conversation from where people where coming from and baseball caps of NY sports teams worn by passengers.

If this winter is mild, I think it might depress Florida sales as well, especially out of PHL.

On the note of PHL, I flew Frontier out of PHL recently this week. Boarding is very fast as many don't bring on a carry on bag.

Based on two recent flights: do not to go by the Doors Closed print in the Boarding pass, as F9 will close the doors 10 minutes before that time. Boarding happens very quickly. The problem with PHL is then sometimes F9 is #10 waiting to take off, even after they are ready. At TTN, generally F9 can take off. Likely not a dealbreaker issue, but just something to know.