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.
Image: drewski2112