Frontier Airlines to Have Memphis, Tenn., Service By Mid-May

By Jane Roberts, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.

Feb. 14–Discount carrier Frontier Airlines will be serving Memphis by mid-May, offering two daily nonstops to Denver, plus two other routes it will announce this morning.

“We think we have a great product that will stand up well against the regional jets currently flying into Memphis,” said Joe Hodas, Frontier spokesman.

All routes will be flown on 114-seat Airbus 318s, which include seat-back televisions with a variety of stations and pay-per-view channels.

“We’ve been looking at Memphis for quite some time,” Hodas said. “Typically when we go into a new city, we start with service to and from Denver. This is a little beyond that because there will be other service from Memphis involved.”

Frontier has not announced its schedule or fares — except to say it will kick off service with lower-cost “intro fares.”

It will compete directly with Northwest Airlines and United Airlines on the Denver routes. Northwest has one nonstop a day; United has three. Both use regional jets.

“This is something we’ve been working on for several years,” said Larry Cox, president and chief executive of the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority. “It’s great to see it come to fruition.

“If these flights go well, you’ll see Frontier adding more frequencies and destinations.”

If history is any example, Northwest and United will reduce fares to compete. Frontier says it is braced for the competition.

Frontier, founded in 1994, is the second-largest jet service carrier at Denver International Airport. It employs about 5,000 people and in late November, was named Best U.S. Low-Cost Carrier by the people who read Business Traveller magazine.

Memphis, which has two low-cost carriers, has not had a new airline since America West came to town in 2003, offering two nonstop flights to Phoenix via regional jets.

America West — now US Airways — has not increased its frequency, though it expected to when it launched in April 2003.

Analysts expect Frontier to be more aggressive, largely because it is competing head to head with Southwest Airlines at Frontier’s hub in Denver and has taken a hit in terms of average fare cost.

“It was one thing for Frontier to compete as the low-cost carrier in Denver against United,” said George Hamlin at Hamlin Transportation Consulting in Virginia. “Now with the champion showing up, Frontier is doing things Southwest doesn’t. Frontier goes to LaGuardia and Washington National. And it has a big market in Mexico; Southwest doesn’t.”

Frontier is also expanding in second-tier cities that its rival apparently finds unattractive. In the past three months, Frontier has added nonstop service to Hartford, Conn., Louisville, Ky., and Vancouver, British Columbia.

It also recently announced a variety of new routes into Mexico, where it serves eight cities. And in 2005, it launched service in Nashville with two flights. It now has three.

“Memphis strikes us as an underserved market,” Hodas said. “We think there is an opportunity to offer a differentiated product with better fares for Memphis.”

Southwest, on the other hand, is pursuing larger markets, initiating service in Philadelphia and Denver, and re-establishing itself in San Francisco.

Cox hasn’t given up on Southwest.

“They are waiting for the opportune time in Memphis. They’re a very successful company, so you certainly can’t fault how they operate their airline.”

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