Sky Talk

Frontier pilots: 'We have confidence in our managment'

The Frontier Airline Pilots Association has been running a newspaper ad seeking to reassure the airline's customers that the airline is still a good travel choice despite its recent bankruptcy filing.

It states: "News our our reorganization might cause some to consider flying on other airlines, but we've got a better view of what lies ahead from up here, and we have confidence in our management to help us guide you through the sometimes unstable skies to your destination."

The Frontier ad is notably different from recent ads published by unions at American Airlines, which have been highly critical of management and have disparaged the carrier's service.

We should add, of course, that anything that inspires unions to buy newspaper ads is a good thing from where we sit.

- Trebor Banstetter

Majors move to match United fare hike; whither AA?

Delta Air Lines, Continental, and US Airways have matched the $4-$30 roundtrip airfare increase launched by United Airlines Wednesday night, Rick Seaney of farecompare.com reports this morning.

That leaves American and Northwest Airlines as the only legacy carriers that haven't matched, although Northwest had a "smattering of what appears to be automated competitive matching," Seaney said.

Alaska Airlines ($12 on certain city pairs), Frontier Airlines ($8-$12 increase), and Midwest Airlines ($20 roundtrip increase) also matched to varying degrees.

"Northwest has been last to match in several of the increases this year so it is not surprising they have not made a move yet," Seaney said. "It will be interesting to see what American decides to do in the wake of this weeks PR nightmare."

He also noted, "again, I cannot stress enough that air travel consumers who have been on the fence about summer travel purchases lock in their tickets as soon as possible. If passengers buy now on American or Northwest they will likely save 5-15 percent on their purchase."

-- Scott Nishimura

Frontier dropping D/FW-Mazatlán

Discount carrier Frontier Airlines is dropping its flight between Dallas/Fort Worth Airport and Mazatlán, Mexico, airline officials told me this morning.

The route's cancellation, which will happen on April 14th, comes amid a broader shakeup of the Denver-based carrier's schedule, said spokesman Joe Hodas. Frontier is dropping many of its point-to-point flights, while ramping up flights from the airline's hub in Denver. He said high fuel prices are the chief culprit.

"We're really beefing up the Denver service," he said. "Right now, the point-to-point flying to Mexico no longer makes sense."

Denver launched the D/FW-Mazatlán last June, hoping to snare tourists as well as the region's large population of immigrants from Mexico. It had no competition on the route, but clearly bookings weren't strong enough to overcome the costs.

Meanwhile, the airline will begin a new route to Cancún from D/FW, but only as a charter service. Those flights will be done on behalf of MLT Vacations, Hodas said. The new charter flight will fill the void left by the closing of Champion Air, which had operated a D/FW-Cancún charter.

- Trebor Banstetter

American matches United fare increase

It looks like last week's fare hike - a $10 each-way increase initiated by United - is going to stick. American and US Airways matched the price hike over the weekend, according to FareCompare.com. On the discount front, Frontier and AirTran also matched.

- Trebor

Frontier evaluating tech strategy

Frontier Airlines, which has service at D/FW Airport, is re-evaluating its use of technology, especially its Internet site, according to a report in Aviation Week.

The web site is an area Frontier is "taking a hard look at," according to carrier CFO Paul Tate, who said, "Suffice to say right now we're disappointed;" more bookings are not being driven to the site.

Frontier executives are also "really digging into the routes," CEO Sean Menke said, to understand what is and is not working and redeploy the assets, if necessary, to ensure "we get the returns we need."

- Trebor

Farecompare says CAL fare hike remains "sticky"

Airfare activity on Monday was "very volatile" as carriers continued to react to last Thursday's airfare hike by Continental, the farecompare.com tracking service said just before midnight Monday.

"After three airfare distributions today (10 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. EDT), the $10 roundtrip increase initiated by Continental late last Thursday continues to remain “sticky",” farecompare's Rick Seaney said in a release. The domestic airfare change activity today was very volatile, as both JetBlue and AirTran fired out substantial airfare sales in the midst of the legacy airlines jockeying for market position related to the sixth airfare increase since Labor Day."

"It will be interesting to see how the legacy airlines react to these two domestic airfare sales," Seaney said. "Delta has the most exposure to the AirTran sale, while JetBlue city pairs are spread more evenly across several competing airlines."

Seaney posted more detailed info about the fare sales in his blog, http://rickseaney.com.

• American Airlines rolled back the $10 increase on 200 city pairs.
• Alaska Airlines continued matching the $10 increased in 600 city pairs.
  JetBlue started an airfare sale dropping prices on its cheapest fares by $20-$100 roundtrip.
• Continental rolled back the $10 increase in 1,400 city pairs.
  Delta Air Lines both rolled back and continued matching for a net rollback in business fares in 2,000 city pairs. There was no net change on leisure fares.
• Frontier Airlines rolled back the $10 increase for business fares in 620 city pairs and leisure fares in 240 city pairs.
• AirTran Airways started an airfare sale dropping prices on its cheapest fares by $20-$140 roundtrip.
• Northwest Airlines rolled back the $10 increase in 2,000 city pairs.
• United Airlines rolled back the $10 increase in 1,500 city pairs.
• US Airways both rolled back and continued matching for a net match of the increase in 1,600 city pairs.
  

"The increase looks to be firmly entrenched, and most likely these new airfare sales from JetBlue and AirTran will be strategically matched in highly competitive overlap markets without posing much of a threat to the broader increase," Seaney said.

-- Scott

Did the United fare increase stick? Yes, no, sort of

 

Airfare changes -- and the degree to which airlines match their competitors' price moves -- is such nebulous ground that FareCompare.com is introducing a new "Stickiness" scale to characterize levels of matching activity.

Here are the levels:

• Full price match: 75 percent or more of a competitor's new prices.
• Partial match: 35-75 percent
• Minor match: 10-35 percent
• None: No match

Here's how a $6 domestic roundtrip increase by United Airlines late last week is playing out on the Stickiness scale, according to FareCompare:

• United initiates the price hike Friday morning at 10 a.m.
• US Airways partially matches between lunchtime Friday and late Saturday afternoon.
• American Airlines has a minor match by 8 p.m. Friday.
• Delta Air Lines has a full match by Friday evening, continues minor matches by 10 a.m. Monday.
• Frontier Airlines has minor match by Friday evening.
• Midwest Airlines has partial match by Friday evening.
• Continental Airlines has partial match by late Saturday afternoon, continues partial matching by lunchtime Monday.
• Northwest Airlines has full match by late Sunday afternoon.
• Delta rolls back 22 percent of original full match between lunchtime Monday and lunchtime Wednesday.
• Northwest rolls back 27 percent of its original full match between Monday evening and lunchtime Wednesday.
• United rolls back 18 percent of its original fare hike between Monday night and lunchtime Wednesday.
• Other airlines have had "little or no rollback activity."

-- Scott

Airlines begin to match United's fare hike

Airlines have started to match United Airlines' $6 roundtrip fare increase Friday, Farecompare.com says.

"This most recent increase continues to be broad based, encompassing both business and leisure airfares," Farecompare.com said in an email.

As of late Friday, here's how other airlines were matching United's fare increase, measured by percentage of total airfares matched:

• AirTran, none
• American Airlines, 20
• Continental Airlines, none
• Delta Air Lines, 70
• Frontier Airlines, 95
• JetBlue, none
• Midwest Airlines, 7
• Northwest Airlines, none
• United Airlines, 75
• US Airways, 7

Farecompare.com said it expected more activity Saturday and Sunday, "where more matching or rollback activity might occur."

"In the span of just three short weeks, a significant number of passengers are now paying up to $24 more for roundtrip ticket," Farecompare's Rick Seaney said. "Three relatively “sticky” increases in as many weeks (initiated by Southwest, Delta and United respectively) is a telling sign that the major legacy airlines are feeling pretty confident about passenger demand in the coming months."

-- Scott

Airlines hiring again

USA Today reports that airlines are hiring again, but the pool of applicants has been inconsistent, the result of years of compensation cuts. So, the airlines are resorting to everything from signing bonuses, to referral fees, and even a fishing party to drum up interest.

-- Scott

Frontier gaining on Southwest

USA Today's Today in the Sky blog reports that Frontier Airlines posted a 20 percent revenue gain in August on routes where it competes head to head against Southwest Airlines.

-- Scott