Frontier pilots need to look at the facts,” he said. Republic has said it would operate Frontier separately from its other regional jet operations, but Republic replaced all the pilots and planes at Midwest Airlines when it bought Midwest this year and could do the same to Frontier’s operations down the road, Mann said.
RJET replaced the planes because YX's the MD-80s were large gas guzzlers. The 717s are OK for most of YX's routes except the premium West Coast routes. The E190s allow them to go MKE-LAX and offer two classes of service, they needed new planes. Expect YX and F9 to standardize to 318/319/320s (we'll likely see less 318s). The 717s will probably stay for a while since YX won't be able to dump them easily, unless FL needs them.
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Everyone is a winner here. F9 keeps its culture. WN keeps its culture. DEN remains a truly competitive market with THREE airlines not a sort of duopoly like like PHX and PHL. YX will get better aircraft for MKE-west coast routes and remain competitive with FL and WN.
You can say all you want about Frontier being weakest of the three at DEN and it's probably true. But WN wanted this as an asset play and it should not come as a surprise that there was no labor agreement between WN and F9. This should really read integration agreement where F9 pilots would lose their seniority in exchange for WN providing "job security" by training selected pilots on 737s as the beloved Airbuses disappear. F9 gets to remain pretty much F9. WN won't have integration hassles. If the Morris Air integration was a mess with their all 737 fleet and being a virtual copy of WN just based in SLC what do you think absorbing F9 would have looked like?
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To the two DAY residents, Kathleen Hanover and DougOH:
Both of you are very fortunate to have your choice of 3 airports, DAY at home and CVG and CMH both 90 minutes away. Most of the country cannot just pick and choose airports and airlines the way you two can.
Kathleen, you said that haven't flown F9, so you really have no basis to comment that it costs $100 extra for the TV. It's $5 per use or free if you're elite which starts at only 15,000 miles or if you pay a higher fare (similar to WN's Business Select pricing) . Considering that DAY-DEN is a non-stop and a F9 monopoly route, is that where the $100 extra comes from vs. CMH-DEN on WN with stop or connection in MDW or STL?
If you flew Frontier, you would understand the loyalty of both its employees and customers and why it is a formidable competitor to WN and other airlines. Both business and leisure travelers actually like so called "perks" like assigned seating, good customer service, friendly US based phone agents (unlike United), seats that are 1 inch WIDER than WN and yes, TV. To many people, $100 round trip extra for a wider seat for would alone be worth it. Why not try them out before you make any comments about useless frills like TV. By the way, the TV helps keep families with kids entertained. Quiet, happy kids = happy parents = more enjoyable flight for everyone.
Try flying to San Jose, Costa Rica or Anchorage or anywhere AirTran flies on Rapid Rewards. I like WN too, but having F9 as competition makes WN a better airline. I wish F9 flew CMH-DEN, but we're stuck with Untied (not a typo). You are fortunate to have F9.
DougOH, don't hold your breath on additional DAY service from any airline. The days of Piedmont and non-stops to LAX are so 25+ years ago. NCR's relocation to Atlanta doesn't help. But you can blame that on the CEO, who never took residence in DAY.
Regarding the "I can't fly WN because of peanuts" comment. WN is the most accommodating airline. If you KINDLY mention to the FAs that you cannot have peanuts, they can and will serve other snacks to not just you but the rows around you or even the entire plane. Try that on another carrier which needs the $$$ and sells nut snack packs.
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