Frontier Airlines rolled out a new paint job for its jets as it converts to an ultra low-cost carrier.
The airline kept its signature animals but downsized the website address on aircraft. The design used design touches from the history of the airline and its predecessor that served the Rocky Moutnain region The carrier also went live with a new design for a website that under cost cutting efforts and previous ownerships had not kept up with the times.
The airline is cutting service from Wilmington/New Castle this fall and winter and enthusiasm for the carrier had waned of late, with news of schedule cutbacks. Some good news came at press time as The News Journal reported service would resume on a seasonal basis to Chicago next summer.
Further details were not released. Frontier service will be confined to flights to Orlando and Tampa, Fla. and will drop service to a number of destinations that also include Fort Meyers, Fla. The Frontier service change is seasonal, but there has been no promises that other service will be restored.
The airline is now focusing more on warm weather locations and its other Delaware Valley airport,Trenton/Mercer County. In what may be a sign of things to come, the carrier is not shying away from major metropolitan airports. For example, it recently announced additional flights out of Chicago O’Hare airport one of the two busiest in the U.S. It also serves less crowded.
The airline has added new executives under new owner Indigo Partners, which sold off a controlling interest in Spirit Airlines, another ultra-low cost carrier. That management team that includes veterans of ultra-low cost carriers Spirit and Alegiant has been aggressively adjusting the schedule in an effort to maximize revenue and lower operating costs to those of Spirit.
Frontier flights out of Wilmington have been running at 90 percent occupancy, but may not be getting the ticket prices that could be fetched at other destinations.
Frontier has about four dozen planes, a fraction of the size of fleets of larger airlines. It does have plans to expand its fleet in coming years. Frontier has taken on the characteristics of the ultra-low cost carriers by charging for all luggage except for a person item. The new management team has stated that Frontier will put an emphasis on customer service, a strategy that is given less emphasis at Spirit Airlines, which has low customer satisfaction ratings.
At the same time, however, it will be more difficult to build up customer loyalty with changing schedules that seek the highest yields, but leave uncertainty with customers. – Doug Rainey
