Frontier Airlines Airbus A319 (N928FR) taking off from Seattle, WA.
Last year Republic Airways bought both Midwest Airlines and Frontier Airlines. Back in February the chairman of Republic, Bryan Bedford, stated he wanted to unify the brands. He said that Frontier and Midwest have “great brand value,” and that the combined airline will “keep the best of both of what is Frontier and Midwest.”
Some have stated there is a desire to change the Midwest name, since the combined airline will be flying to many more locations than just the Midwest. However many airlines don’t fly just where their name suggests [ie Alaska Airlines flies to Hawaii, Southwest flies to Ft Lauderdale, FL], so that is not a huge deal in my mind. But having a consistent brand is important. Before the purchase, people knew what to expect flying Frontier: leather seats, Direct TV, a cute animal on the tail etc. However, after the purchase the airlines shared aircraft across brands and the consistency was gone.
Having one brand will save on marketing money, create pride for the workforce and allow brand loyalty with customers.
Today, Midwest and Frontier announced via live internet feed that their new combined name will be “Frontier Airlines.” This means those awesome animals on the tails will be around for a long time and the Midwest Airlines brand will die [RIP].
’œThis decision was an emotional one for everyone involved,’ said Bedford. ’œWhile the research showed that customers preferred the Frontier brand, they also expressed a strong loyalty to both brands based on affordability, convenience, destinations and delivery of a differentiated experience. As we work to integrate these two brands into a unified Frontier Airlines, you can expect to see a lot of influence from the Midwest brand. This will include the introduction of the iconic Midwest Airlines chocolate chip cookie on all Frontier flights this summer.’
They don’t just plan a unified name, but they also plan to expand their service at their Denver (ten new destinations) and Milwaukee (five new destinations) hubs. They hope to fully combine both airlines in a pretty quick time line of 12 to 18 months. A Web site has been developed to communicate with the public throughout this process at FrontierMidwest.com.
I am sure you know about the old Twilight Zone video of the Nightmare at 20,000 with the monster on the wing? Well Saturday Night Live recently re-did the video with a little humor added on.
Middle East Airlines is the national carrier of Lebanon. It was founded way back in 1945 and flies to just over 25 destinations. They currently have a fleet of 13 aircraft consisting of Airbus A320, Airbus A321 and four Airbus A330. Their livery is quite simple with a tree on the tail (which is their trade mark symbol — check out this old Boeing 707) with MEA on the front.
They are known for their good safety record and high customer service. Their flight attendants are required to speak three languages: Arabic, English and French.
The tree on the tail is a Cedar of Lebanon which is a native species in the Mediterranean Mountains in Lebanon.
Spirit Airlines Airbus A321 with unique Blue/White livery
When I first heard this story I thought, “oh yes, I get to award another ‘Crazier Than Ryanair‘ medal.” However as I learned more about Spirit Airline’s new carry-on fees, I wonder if it is really all that crazy?
If you have missed it, Spirit Airlines is looking to charge passengers for carry-ons. There has been a lot of coverage of this, but here are the facts of the new carry-on fees:
* They start August 1st, 2010
* Spirit will be the first airline to charge for carry-on bags
* Your one personal item can go under your seat and is free
* It will cost $45 at the airport, $30 online and $20 for club members to have a carry-on in the overhead bin
Is this THAT crazy? Maybe not. If you have flown in the last few years you might have noticed how HUGE passenger’s carry-on bags have become. Three bags and one bin is totally full. It becomes a rush to the airplane to make sure you get space in the overhead bin. These fees would limit the number of people having a carry-on and would probably guarantee space for everyone who wants it.
Weight costs money. Airlines have been looking at ways to offer a basic ticket which will get your body from one destination to another and anything else going with you will cost money. It was only a matter of time before an airline [Ryanair anyone] would try something like this.
People will still pay. Passengers complain about new fees, but when it comes down to it, the fees make airlines a lot of money. Passengers might say they will never pay the carry-on fee, but when they are confronted with Spirit Airlines possibly having the cheapest fares, they don’t think twice. If passengers weren’t willing to pay these fees, airlines wouldn’t have them.
Yesterday Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood voiced his opposition to Spirit’s new fees. “I think it’s a bit outrageous that an airline is going to charge someone to carry on a bag and put it in the overhead. And I’ve told our people to try and figure out a way to mitigate that. I think it’s ridiculous.” FlyersRights.org also voiced their opinion that the government should step in and stop the madness of the airlines.
I am sorry, but this just angers me. The airlines were rightfully deregulated in the United States long ago and run via the free market. If passengers really don’t want to pay the fees, they won’t and Spirit will lose money and change their policies back. Airlines just don’t make up rules and policies in a vacuum that aren’t influenced by customer demand.
Yes, if the fees were not clear and were hidden, I could see the government stepping into make sure an airline was not deceiving passengers, but if you look at Spirit’s website (or been watching the news over the last few days), it is quite obvious what the fees are for.
Personally do I want to pay these fees? Heck no! But if I am flying somewhere and Spirit has the cheapest (even with paying the fees) will I care what my money is paying for? Probably not. It will be very interesting to see how this all works out.
Normally when I fly, my in flight entertainment is taking a nap. Recently Kris Lines was on Air Canada Jazz flight 8229 from Calgary to Vancouver when he decided to take a little nap in the back of the aircraft. His flight landed, passengers de-planed and no one woke Lines up.
Lines admits he is a heavy sleeper and was up for 24 hours traveling, but he isn’t invisible.
“It’s absolute craziness,” said Lines. “The last thing I remember was taking off from Calgary. I knew I was safely on board and there was no further destinations and it was all good.” He was confident that somebody would wake him up in Vancouver.
No one did. After his flight was de-planed, the aircraft was towed to a hangar and 90 minutes after landing a maintenance worker finally discovered Lines.
Flight attendants are human and mistakes can be made. However, things could have turned out much worse with this. What if was an unaccompanied minor? Someone would could have caused harm to the aircraft unsupervised?
Lines wrote to the airline looking for answers and MaryAnn Morgan, with the airline, responded, “Although there was no excuse for the incident that occurred, it appears the flight attendant on this occasion was dealing with several wheelchair passengers and coordinating their departure from the aircraft. Although the flight attendant advises he did look back into the aircraft to check for any passengers still on board, he did not walk through the aircraft cabin as he was engaged with handling the passengers in wheelchairs requiring assistance.”
Morgan continued, “I can assure you that no previous incident of this nature has occurred and that this matter has been thoroughly reviewed with the crew member concerned and other crews operating similar aircraft to ensure an incident of this type does not happen again.”
She assured lines that the airline operates over 800 flights per day and this was an isolated incident. Lines was also offered a 20% discount on four future tickets with Air Canada.
