Frontier to return to Wilmington, DE
 

Why not, I guess. I don't think this will be profitable for them, but I guess it's worth a shot. They can at least price at Wilmington without worrying about a response from AA.

https://delawarebusinessnow.com/2020...on-new-castle/

I have seen it all with Frontier!

I suspect the service that will re-start will be ILG-MCO. If they run it in the evenings again, expect dirt cheap fares but F9 will end it again because of poor performance.

Right now, F9 has 3x daily PHL-MCO. If it trims PHL-MCO to fund ILG-MCO, it will only be hurting itself. Spirit also is 3x on PHL-MCO and will wind up stronger on the route.

ILG is nice for its free parking, but for most of the population it's a longer drive to reach ILG. I feel there are more route opportunities, stronger market catchment in PHL, BWI and TTN. ILG is really only more convenient for a couple of counties in Delaware but more inconvenient than PHL for a greater population. And passengers can't fly on Frontier, return on another airline out of ILG. I'd thought starting ABE again would have made more sense than ILG.

All that ILG has going for it is the free parking. The terminal is very small and outdated. It can only accommodate one passenger jet at a time, lacks jetways and a baggage carousel.

I flew out of ILG on F9 (and likewise a predecessor Shuttle America circa 1998). This airport suffers not only from small size, but also the catchment area for it is so limited. An appealing option perhaps to Delaware residents afraid to drive on Interstate 95 to either PHL or BWI.

Neighbors of mine flew down to Florida on F9 from ILG back in 2013. They thought they had received a pretty good deal. Then when it came to the Sunday of the return flight, Frontier cancelled the flight on account of some mechanical issue and told them they would be reaccommodated on their next flight 3 or 4 days later. As they had jobs to report to Monday morning, this meant having to get last minute expensive one way tickets from MCO to PHL and cabbing back to ILG to get their vehicle. Needless to say, they will never fly F9 again.

I give F9 perhaps 18 months tops at ILG before they decide to pull out once again.

I don't disagree at all with the above sentiments. I'm also expecting an MCO announcement (it's late for a SoFla destination) largely because any other route announcement would be even crazier. :) Last time Frontier flew from ILG, the planes were pretty full but the yields were poor. I don't think anything has changed. If they sell $100 roundtrips to MCO, the planes will be full again. But how do they achieve profitable yields? If it didn't work before, it's not going to work this time, especially since the strategy last time was to build a real base of operations at ILG. There was a whole marketing campaign with the slogan "It's Silly to Fly from Philly." It wasn't and it isn't. This time, when the fares are dirt cheap, travellers will pick ILG but, when they're not, they'll be back at Philly and Frontier's service will be gone.

Flyfrontier.com has the flight schedule for ILG-MCO loaded up.

Starting May 14
3X Weekly (Sun,Tues,Thur)

F9 1254 MCO 932AM ILG 1158AM A319
F9 1255 ILG 1238PM MCO 313PM A319

Not a great schedule.

Atlanta, Ft. Myers, Tampa and Denver show up in the pulldown menu as well. These are the ones I think might be nonstop. Austin shows up as well but I think thats a long shot perhaps its connection via ATL or MCO?

That's the extent of it. Just Orlando per the speech given at ILG this morning by a Frontier official.

There must be a subsidy and perhaps more seasonal FL destinations coming next Fall. TPA/RSW/MIA might be possible.

I thought Frontier claims their fares are now always cheaper when bought as a roundtrip. I just priced this new ILG-MCO flight. If you flew out of ILG on May 19 and returned May 21, it seems to be about $74 for Discount Den members when bought as one ways and $84 when bought as a "money-saving" roundtrip. No?

I saw the Today show this morning, and noticed (something like Frontier to announce service at New Castle airport) was on the news ticker. Is that just the local Philly affiliate or was that "news" made available around the country?

Anyways, I'd think ILG-MCO would stand to do better, as a daily flight, and timed such as a 7:30am flight out of ILG. Afternoon is ok, but for a single flight an early flight to MCO allows more daytime in a theme park, and is preferred for families with kids. Also makes it possible to fly to MCO and then another airline out of MCO (self made connections), which might be cheaper than starting the origin at PHL. MCO is known to be a competitive market with low fares.

Well, at least the times aren't the WORST. Hard to make money in any market when you just fly 3 times a week. You're basically guaranteed rock bottom yields, as you're only catering to folks who will trade flexibility for price. As I've said, people will definitely buy the $25 and $49 fares, but I don't see how this is "a business." We'll see, I suppose.

Even with a better timed offering of ILG-MCO-ILG, I still think MCO-ILG will just dilute from F9's own MCO-PHL, rather than be complementary to it.

If Frontier wanted to try something complementary in addition to the MCO-PHL and TPA-PHL flights, I think a variation like SFB-PHL as an addition could add more value than setting up flights from ILG to MCO and later TPA.

It could possibly try SFB-ATL, BWI, PHL, EWR, ORD and get some interest from the northern part of Orlando region (i.e. Lake Mary/Sanford), but also pull some slightly from St. Augustine, Daytona, south of Jacksonville side to major markets north and those markets would fly to reach other destinations in Central Florida and Orlando as well.

This will be very cool if I can purchase Frontier tickets at ILG. I realize their counter will have very limited hours, but super easy to pull up, park for free, go inside and purchase tickets for flights out of PHL and saving $20 per flight. Hoping this will be possible.

Ha! If you live in Wilmington, that might indeed be the best use of the Orlando flight for local residents. I suppose it will be hard to actually do though. You'd have to go the counter at just the right time, and hope they know what to do. BTW, how well does the "counter trick" actually work with Frontier these days? I remember this started with Spirit's pricing. I tried it once at EWR but was entirely unsuccessful in my effort, as a delayed Spirit flight made the counter an absolute nightmare.

I've successfully done it a few times recently with both Frontier and Spirit at PHL, but luckily each time there was no wait at the counter, and the agents knew exactly what to do. I was prepared for them not knowing, and I'm fully prepared to show up sometime and have the whole area be a nightmare. Always important to know what the customer convenience charge (or whatever they call it) is going in so you know if it's worth the savings or not, but lately it has been a consistent $22.99 per flight (on Spirit) and near that on Frontier and I've saved hundreds of dollars at a time. I work for myself entirely online so I'm extremely flexible, both with flight times and getting to the airport to purchase tickets. I know this isn't for everybody, and yeah, living in Delaware it makes ILG an excellent place for me to do this if, as you say, the contract worker they hire there actually knows what they are doing.

So it's a $46 roundtrip savings per ticket these days? Certainly worth a shot if you're nearby, especially since ILG doesn't even charge for parking.

EDIT:
So I'm looking at a pretty typical Frontier fare. It reads like this:
US1 - U.S. Transportation Tax
$0.91
CIC - Carrier Interface Charge
$21.00
AY1 - U.S. Passenger Security Fee
$5.60
ZP - U.S. Domestic Flight Segment Tax
$4.30
XF - New Orleans, La (MSY) Passenger Facility Charge
$4.50
TOTAL PAYMENT DUE
$48.40

So if I go to the airport to ticket, I should be able to take off the $21 CIC? I'm thinking of booking this fare for 3 people roundtrip. So that would be worth $126? I have to go later this week to drop somebody off at the airport. It's tempting to try it.

Correct. You would save $21 on each flight. But keep in mind you don't get any other discounts when you purchase in person, so it's always best to compare with what Frontier is offering on its website, whether it be Discount Den, or a percentage off fare. You can always add bags and/or seats later.

Also bags cost more too..please look at the baggage info on their website to be sure as to how much. Bag costs now are based on the actual flight rather than just a standard fee or even a fee for a certain route.
https://www.flyfrontier.com/travel/t...fo/bag-options

No surprise here, but it looks like Frontier is delaying the start of the ILG-MCO route. It was originally to begin May 14th but they aren't taking any bookings until June 25th. I'm highly skeptical this route will run at all this summer as it didn't appear to make much sense under even the best of conditions and now just seems pointlessly absurd.

Yup, I don't think I'd be making my Wilmington, DE travel plans yet. :)

Yeah, this is a bummer. I hope it runs for some amount of time.

The total airline nerd in me really wants to grab a commercial flight in or out of Delaware, just so I can say I've flown into/out of all 50 states.

Then I guess I'd have to start worrying about Saipan and Pago Pago to really complete the challenge.

Maybe this service is DOA? I see "Wilmington" is still listed as a destination on the website, but I don't think you can actually buy a ticket. The Delaware Airline Curse returns. :)

FWIW, I think it would be nuts to buy a ticket on Frontier right now. In a way it wouldn't be nuts to buy a ticket for summer on one of the major carriers -- especially since they're offering a free change. "Changing" your Frontier ticket to something else you might want could be challenging.

EDIT: the local paper did a story discussing this uncertainty.

https://www.delawareonline.com/story...ak/2936668001/

duplicate

Yup. Poor Wilmington won't be seeing any air service for quite some time. The Curse remains.

Trenton may be in the same boat soon...

And they're coming back again...

https://townsquaredelaware.com/2020/...9UzvuWwBXa_TSQ

I guess we'll see. But if the fare is more than $11, I suggest you wait a while to buy your tickets. Just in case, of course. :)

Bringing this back up.

Service started this Thursday.

I am taking the flight ILG-MCO later today.

So flights have actually started. I'm surprised they pulled this off but also disappointed that the one major perk of flying out of ILG, free parking, is now gone. $5/day isn't bad, but I can get close to that at PHL using the Global Airport Parking website.

Just took the second ILG MCO flight.

About 40 folks on the plane. Plenty of room to spread out.

Not sure if it will last but glad I got use a commercial airport in Delaware once.

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I didn't realize this actually launched. Just MCO 3x a week, right? Seems like some tickets are $19 next month. Not a bad deal for folks in the area.I would think it's a struggle for Frontier right now with the major airlines having such cheap fares and, realistically, who wants to be packed in like sardines on an airplane right now?

Yeah, that was part of why I bumped up the thread.

It was a pretty pleasant experience with 40 people :D​​​​​​, but otherwise I wouldn't say it's anything amazing.

I just think if you price it right you can fill up any plane from the NE to FL.

Hope it sticks around long enough for other folks hoping to all 50 states can get a chance.