Frontier Airlines will offer service in the fall of 2015 to at least one Florida city from New Castle Airport (Wilmington-ILG).
Airport officials made the announcement last week.
Todd Lehmacher, Frontier Airlines director of corporate communications, stated: “Frontier does plan to return to Wilmington on a seasonal basis sometime in late 2015 with non-stop service to at least one destination in Florida”
Airport Director Stephen D. Williams said, “We certainly welcome today’s confirmation of Frontier’s commitment to the Delaware market served through Wilmington – ILG. Our customers want more service, not less, and we know they will continue to support air service to Wilmington by flying Frontier from ILG whenever it fits their travel plans.”
The Delaware River and Bay Authority stated that it remains committed to providing an excellent customer experience and is optimistic about the future of commercial air service.
The announcement came after Lehmacher confirmed that seasonal service to Tampa and Orlando would end in April,.
That set off speculation that the airline might pull out of WIlmington – ILG after adding service from Philadelphia International Airport to some of the destinations that had been dropped this fall.
Frontier entered the Delaware in summer of 2013 with a schedule that included nonstops to Atlanta, Denver, Chicago, Houston, Tampa, Orlando and Fort Meyers. Frontier had been filling nearly 90 percent of its seats out of New Castle, but moved on to other markets after claiming the numbers did not justify year-around service.
Figures from the US Department of Transportation showed flights from New Castle ran just shy of 90 percent full in the first eight months of the year. That would seem to suggest that a market does exist for New Castle, which has seen occasional attempts to add commercial service.
All destinations, with the exception of Orlando have been dropped, from the ILG schedule with service to Tampa to resume later this year.
Frontier has retained most of the service from Trenton, which along with Wilmington -ILG was part of its strategy to serve the Delaware Valley through smaller airports with lower landing fees.
That strategy has been altered somewhat under new owner Indigo Partners, which has converted Frontier into an ultra-low fare carrier that charges for nearly all services in return for lower fares.
Frontier is now making forays into airports like Philadelphia and Cleveland, looking at destinations where bigger carriers are charging high fares.
All airlines are benefitting from lower fuel prices, with criticism growing about big carriers raising fares even though fuel prices are falling. The industry has consolidated into mega carriers, United, American-US Airways and Delta, with Southwest rounding out the group.
The mega carriers have retired or sold off jets, reducing the number of overall seats and chances of fare wars on some routes.
Other airlines, such as Frontier, Spirit and Alaska Airlines are much smaller, leading to fears that the majors will squeeze out the smaller fry. After downsizing its fleet in recent years, Frontiers does have jets on order.
