New Castle Airport has rolled out a newly designed website at the Fly.ILg.com address as the airport saw a glimmer of hope on future service.
The website from the Delaware River and Bay Authority features a mobile friendly design that reflects the growing use of cell phones to acccess the web.
One of its featured images is a generic passenger jet, rather than a photo of a Frontier Airlines jet.
Airport manager Stephen Williams says that the first priority is to work with Frontier to build its service schedule.
As reported here and and elsewhere, Frontier is trimming its schedule for the late fall and winter with the only flights out of New Castle going to Orlando and Tampa. Gone is the popular winter destination of Fort Meyers as well as Atlanta, Denver and Chicago. Delaware is not alone. A number of long-time routes are losing year-around service to Denver as the company looks for improved revenue opportunities with its ultra-low fare strategy.
The News-Journal did report that service to Chicago will resume this summer, However, Frontier spokesman Todd Lehmacher stopped short of any promises. “As far as ILG – Chicago service for next summer, I would simply say that the possibility exists for a return in summer 2015 but nothing has been finalized at this time,”
In the meantime, Frontier’s beefed up management team has been been tweaking its schedule. New owner Indigo Partners has brought in veterans from ultra-low fare carriers Spirit and Alegiant who reviewed routes and cut service from New Castle beginning in the fall. Williams says he has not heard from Frontier since the major schedule changes took place.
There were a few clues coming from Bill Franke, who heads Indigo. Franke told the Denver Business Journal that the airline is not ruling out serving smaller cities. Franke also noted that Frontier will begin receiving 80 new aircraft, beginning in 2016.
Williams also took note of the future deliveries as a reason for hope in seeing more flights from Delaware.
While service from the other Delaware Valley Airport at Trenton/Mercer County has been beefed up, the emphasis seems to be on large airports where the carrier sees openings caused by high air fares. One example came with the launch of a route between Houston and San Francisco.
