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Frontier Airlines has numerous fits and starts in its network as it remains on the selling block

US ultra low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines has made sweeping changes to its network during the last few weeks as it attempts to find the right mix of profitable routes that act as shields from one of its largest competitors, Southwest Airlines.

The changes include axing a short-lived focus city in Colorado Springs, hopping between airports close in geographical distance and introducing new seasonal flights from its Denver hub. Despite the end to the brief test case of the Colorado Springs focus city, Frontier for now remains committed to building up point-to-point service from Trenton, New Jersey and Orlando, Florida.

While the argument could be made that Frontier’s swift reaction to ever-changing market conditions reflects the nimbleness that its smaller size allows, the constant upheaval could be a turn-off to customers that expect a certain level of network consistency. And as Frontier’s parent Republic Airways Holdings works to secure a sale of Frontier in early 2013, would-be buyers may be scratching their heads over the long-term value Frontier might provide.

Spirit Airlines' network legacy market expansion continues as financial performance remains solid

Executives at Spirit Airlines believe the airline’s favourable financial performance during 4Q2012 and full year 2012 demonstrates the soundness of the carrier’s business model built on offering a comparatively lower base fare and garnering a large portion of ancillary revenue from various add-on products. At the moment the carrier holds a solid outlook for 2013, reflected by its planned supply expansion of roughly 22%. The carrier continues to move into legacy and low-cost stronghold markets in the continental US as part of its larger strategy to diversify from the lower-yielding south Florida market. Beginning in Feb-2013 and continuing over the year Spirit is introducing additional flights from Baltimore, Detroit, Denver, Houston, Minneapolis and Philadelphia.

A USD25 million hit to its revenue, resulting from operational disruptions from “superstorm” Sandy that struck the US east coast in Oct-2012, triggered an 18% drop in Spirit’s 4Q2012 profits year-over-year to USD20 million. Spirit has a large presence in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which chief marketing officer Barry Biffle stated was the epicentre of the storm. Spirit is the only carrier serving the airport, and presently (18-Feb-2013 to 24-Feb-2013) operates flights to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, West Palm Beach, Orlando and Tampa, Florida and to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Delta’s new push to Paris confronts United and shows commitment to SkyTeam amid alliance shifts

Major shifts in the three major global airline alliances during the last few weeks have triggered a bevy questions regarding the future of those tie-ups. But just as Qantas attempts to forge a broad agreement with unaligned Emriates, British Airways has convinced reluctant members to allow Qatar to join oneworld and Air France has reversed its stance to embrace Etihad and airberlin, SkyTeam partners Delta and Air France are bolstering their presence in the US-France market.

It is not clear if Delta could benefit from the new Air France-Etihad tie-up that entails codesharing on flights to Abu Dhabi, but eventually Delta’s connecting customers in Paris could utlilise connections to the Middle East opened up by the new non-SkyTeam partnership.

Beginning in the northern hemisphere summer of 2013, Delta is introducing new flights from Newark Liberty International Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle, and new seasonal flights from Boston to Paris. Delta also plans to add another daily flight from its Atlanta hub to Paris, which will increase to four the combined number of daily services offered by Delta and Air France on the pairing.

Delta leverages its strength in Seattle and Alaska Airlines partnership to bolster service to Asia

Delta Air Lines aims to leverage its strong position in Seattle and the long-standing relationship the carrier has built with Alaska Airlines to expand its offerings to Asia. Through the expansion, Delta could intensify competition from the US west coast to Asia with United, which has recorded some sluggishness in its Asian performance during the last year. If Delta succeeds in launching proposed new services to Shanghai and Tokyo’s Haneda airport, Seattle will join the airline’s Detroit hub in becoming a major Asian gateway for the carrier.

If the requisite regulatory approvals for seven weekly frequencies are awarded, Delta intends to launch new service between Seattle and Shanghai in Jun-2013. The carrier is also seeking approval to launch flights between Seattle and Tokyo Haneda. Delta already serves Seattle from Tokyo Narita. Delta is seeking approvals to transfer to the Seattle-Haneda route the traffic rights and Haneda slot it had used for its Detroit-Haneda service, which it axed on 30-Sep-2012 after declaring that the route was underperforming. But American, Hawaiian and United have also all applied to use the Haneda slot originally awarded to Delta for Detroit-Haneda service.

Spirit continues legacy fortress invasion in Dallas and Houston

US ultra-low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines is continuing its drive into domestic legacy airline hubs, pursuing a strategy to capture the low-hanging traffic fruit the larger carriers have chosen to abandon as they attempt to pursue sustained profitability. During late 2012 and continuing into 2013 Spirit is making incremental moves in United’s Houston Intercontinental hub and American’s Dallas/Fort Worth hub, which has quickly risen to become one of the carrier’s key markets during a short two-year period.

At the same time Spirit appears to be quietly testing out the waters against Alaska Airlines. During 4Q2012 Spirit is challenging Alaska’s dominance in the San Diego-Portland market, and is attempting to inch its way into another Alaska monopoly route – San Diego-Los Cabos. During the last couple of years Spirit has been forging a new strategy of entering legacy markets with low frequency service and its bare-bones low fares to essentially stimulate just enough traffic to support its service levels.

Spirit continues rapid expansion from American’s stronghold of Dallas/Forth Worth

Spirit Airlines is planning further growth at Dallas/Fort Worth after rapidly building up a presence at the airport during the last couple of years. By Apr-2013 Spirit will serve nearly 20 destinations from DFW after only re-launching flights from the airport in 2011.

In late 2012 Spirit is adding two new stations to its network once it launches new service from Dallas to Baltimore and Houston, where it will square off with familiar legacy competitors and Southwest Airlines. Spirt also has unveiled plans to launch service from Dallas to Los Angeles and Oakland in 2Q2013 but will be dropping from Sep-2012 service on the Dallas-Boston route, one of several Dallas routes it launched earlier this year.

Spirit is also dropping in Sep-2012 flights from Chicago to Los Angeles, indicating its push over the last year at fortress legacy carrier hubs such as Dallas and Chicago has not enjoyed total success. At Dallas, Spirit’s push from American’s fortress is a highly calculated move into a legacy stronghold where the ultra low-cost carrier concludes it can peacefully co-exist with a legacy rival that happens to offer higher fares while struggling to lower its costs through a Chapter 11 restructuring. American also has a hub at Chicago O'Hare, where United has an even bigger hub.