Frontier Airlines Announces Service To Mazatlan!

[UA777DEN]

Frontier Airlines will begin operating twice-weekly service to the beautiful beach resort of Mazatlan in Mexico starting December 21. One day after daily Cancun service begins.
The Mazatlan flight will operate on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Click on the following graphic to read the official press release:
[a href=http://www.frontierairlines.com/news/articleDisplay.asp?article=/general/2002/pr_10042002.news][/a]
Next that will be announced is service to Los Cabos.
Regards

 

[frntvngd]

Los Cabos has been put on hold.

 

[UA777DEN]

frntvngd,

Where did you hear this?

I heard Los Cabos should be announced either next week or the week after. What all of a sudden happened?

Los Cabos is a much larger market than Mazatlan. I'd assume Mazatlan would be put on hold and not Los Cabos.

Please let me know.

 

[Farley]

Those are two good surf spots. Stone Island in Mazatlan (watch out for a few sharks), and many spots in and around Cabo. Why can't I get an overnight there?

 

[sfb]

I just hope that Frontier isn't biting off more than they can chew. While September numbers were awful for just about everyone in the industry, F9's September load factor of just under 50% (49.7, actually) is cause for concern, given that their break-even load factor (based on reported fare levels and stage lengths) is right at about 70%. My rough guess is that the company's operating loss for September was in the range of $10-12 million.

The company's rapid growth during a period of marked weakness in the national economy (and especially the airline industry) seems a bit imprudent to me. It reminds me in some ways of what happened with Midway II (though there are some important differences). But if UAL does manage to reduce its costs via labor/vendor/lessor concessions, F9 is going to face a more formidable competitor at DEN.

 

[UA777DEN]

sfb,

Almost all airlines experienced an extremely low loadfactor during the month of September because it was the anniversary of the attacks.

However, towards the end of the month bookings began to increase and this trend is continueing throughout this month.

October will be a better month than expected.

Load factor isn't what Frontier is concerned about. Frontier had an average loadfactor of around 60% when they were doing fine. The problem right now is the breakeven loadfactor which needs to be brought down. There average fare for last month was $111, down from $132 from September last year. That's painful when you add it all up.

Frontier is changing there strategy. They're adding 3 new cities this month (Ft. Myers, Oklahoma City, Tucson) but keeping the same capacity. This is done by decreasing frequencies in other markets in order to free up planes to add these new cities.

This is a very smart strategy.

You're going to be seeing a lot of changes at Frontier.

 

[frntvngd]

Im not sure if u are familiar with the F9 board on yahoo finance.

Frontier was planning on doing Denver-Mazatland-Cabo. However you cant fly from an international point to an international point without flagship status, which F9 doesnt have.

That is why it has been put on hold.

 

[UA777DEN]

That's too bad.

Los Cabos should be a non-stop service anyway, not one-stop.

That's strange why they would want to operate the route one-stop.....

 

[Transcon]

Question: Will LiveTV still be available on those flights? Because ALK Cooperate is saying that LiveTV doesn't operate in Mexico nor in Alaska, that's why they renege on the earlier announcement a few years ago.

 

[Farley]

That's a good point. I have heard that it operates there with subscription to that area. I have heard that the programming issues were a big part of the motivation for B6 to purchase Live TV. Maybe it will be more airline friendly now that it is operated by an airline. Anyone else have any insight?