Frontier Airlines will now your cell phone or other electronic device to remain in “airplane mode” during take offs and landings. It was one of the last airlines to end the restrictions.
No, it does not mean you can make a phone call until instructed by flight crew. But the change does allow passengers to play Angry Birds, Words With Friends or videos during all phases of the flight.
Frontier, which flies out of ILG (Wilmington-New Castle) received clearance to make the change from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Laptop computers will still have to be stowed during takeoffs and landings for obvious reasons.
Staff shines in rough winter
New Castle has always been a full-service airport. But with the launch of Frontier Airlines service, the staff’s work was on full display when it came to keeping the airport open.
Thanks to the hard work on the ground here, Frontier was able to keep much of its Delaware schedule intact during a tough winter, due to the point-to-point flights that did not face the chaos that comes with operating from mega airports.
The airport, operated by the Delaware River and Bay Authority also drew widespread praise for its treatment of passenger when a smaller regional jet had to make an emergency landing. Grateful passengers praised their treatment in Facebook posts.
Shown in the accompanying photo is a Frontier jet getting de-icing treatment at the airport during last week’s storm. Photo is courtesy of the Delaware River and Bay Authority.
Frontier Airlines continues to add service from Trenton.
The carrier that serves New Castle Airport recently added flights to Charlotte, Cincinnati and Cleveland, Ohio.
With the news service, Frontier now offers 14 nonstop destinations from Trenton that also include Atlanta, Chicago-Midway, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Indianapolis, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh / Durham and Tampa.
Wilmington/New Castle offers flights to Chicago, Fort Myers, Orlando, Tampa and Denver, the one destination not served out of Trenton. Service from the New Castle Airport to Detroit and Atlanta will commence in May. In both the cases of Trenton and New Castle, flights are offered a few times a week rather than daily, a strategy aimed primarily at leisure travelers.
More Spirit
Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport is getting some additional low fare options to the Midwest with the expansion of Spirit Airlines.
Spirit is adding service from BWI to Chicago O’Hare. The service is daily, which put pressure on other carriers.
Last spring, Spirit brought down fares to some destinations when it began flying of out of Philadelphia International Airport. The carrier offers non-stops to Dallas-Fort Worth, Myrtle Beach and Las Vegas.
The same thing happened from Philadelphia to West Coast points when Virgin Atlantic added service to Philadelphia.
Spirit, by the way, has some former ties to Frontier Airlines. Indigo Partners, which now owns Frontier, had a controlling interest in Spirit. It made a big profit as Spirit stock soared, took the money and bought Frontier.
Spirit offers bare-bones service, charging for virtually all luggage. But even when adding in baggage fees, Spirit can usually offer a deep discount. So far, Frontier still allows one carry-on bag.
Industry analysts are expecting Indigo to further cut costs at Frontier by adding more seats per plane. So far, no big moves have been announced and current Frontier management remains in place.
Still, the analysts see plenty of room for Frontier to expand, given industry consolidation and the higher fares that follow. It could be that Indigo does not want to mess with Frontier’s good to excellent reputation with customer service. Spirit has a far worse reputation.
The final shoe dropped on the consolidation front with the merger of US Airways and American. Service from Philadelphia will stay in place for another three years, but we could see cuts after that time.
Correction
Last week, it was mentioned that Frontier Airlines serves New Orleans from Trenton. The carrier actually dropped nonstop service, leading to some unhappy festival-goers. Frontier also gave the quick hook to non-stop New Castle-Houston service.
You might remember that led to a brew ha ha with a wedding party headed for Texas. Frontier, at first, charged extra for the connecting flight, but later kept the fares at the non-stop figure.
