Low Cost Airline News - North America.

Mar 31, 2008

Allegiant Air

Allegiant Air flew 330.4 million RPMs in February, up 44.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 36.9% to 394 million ASMs and load factor increased 4.2 points to 83.9%. Mar 24, 2008

Frontier Airlines

Frontier Airlines flew 744.8 million RPMs in February, up 18.1% from the year-ago month, against a 7.5% rise in capacity to 957.6 million ASMs. Load factor rose 7 points to 77.8%. Passenger yield was down 3.9% to 9.95 cents while unit revenue rose 5.6% to 7.74 cents. Mar 24, 2008

Frontier Airlines, Airbus

Frontier Airlines reached agreement to sell two of its 49 Airbus A319s and two of its 11 A318s to VTB Leasing, which in turn will lease them to St. Petersburg-based Rossiya Airlines. SkyWorks Leasing arranged the sale. Financial terms were not disclosed. The move is part of the Denver-based carrier's effort to modernize its fleet in the face of high energy costs. President and CEO Sean Menke characterized its recent financial losses as "clearly not acceptable" and vowed to make necessary changes. "In January we communicated a revised capacity growth plan that was driven primarily by the unprecedented rise in the cost of fuel," Menke said last week. "Part of that plan was to move forward with the delivery of the larger, 162-seat Airbus A320 aircraft while selling four of our existing aircraft, resulting in revised year-over-year growth of approximately 3%-5% in fiscal year 2009." Mar 24, 2008

JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines

Neeleman, 48, has a long history of shaking up the airline industry in the United States. He started as a college student selling package tours to Hawaii before co-founding discount carrier Morris Air in 1984. In 1993, he sold Morris to Southwest Airlines for USD$22 million in stock. Five years later, he raised USD$135 million and started JetBlue Airways, whose electronic ticketing platform and leather seats with live TV helped redefine affordable air travel. Because he was born in Brazil, Neeleman is exempt from a law there that caps foreign ownership of domestic airlines at 20 percent. He was raised in the United States, but returned to Brazil at the age of 19 as a Mormon missionary, an experience that helped him polish his Portuguese language skills. Neeleman, a father of nine, said he is trying to persuade his wife to move the family to Brazil so he can give full attention to the new airline. For now, he plans to divide his time between Brazil and the United States. Mar 27, 2008

Skybus Airlines

Skybus Airlines CEO Bill Diffenderffer has resigned, the startup LCC announced, and will be replaced by CFO Mike Hodge. The news comes several days after the carrier announced some cuts in service from its Columbus and Greensboro hubs in favor of more point-to-point flying. Hodge joined the airline in March 2007 from Tiger Management, a hedge fund that provided some startup funding to Skybus. Diffenderffer, who did not comment, signed on in 2005 and will return to writing books, the Dispatch reported. Mar 24, 2008

Skybus Airlines

Skybus Airlines previously announced reductions at Columbus and Greensboro represent an attempt to deal with the unprecedented increase in the cost of fuel by improving customer service and meeting demand on its most profitable routes. It has canceled a Columbus-Niagara Falls service and a second daily Columbus-Milwaukee flight scheduled to begin April 1. On April 15 it will discontinue service from Columbus to Chattanooga and halve twice-daily service to New York Stewart and Chicopee, Mass. From Greensboro it will discontinue flights to Gulfport/Biloxi and reduce service to Gary, Wilmington, Del., Punta Gorda and Stewart. Skybus will compensate for the cuts with more point-to-point flying. On June 1 it will launch Chicopee-St. Augustine, Chicopee-Punta Gorda, Richmond-St. Augustine and Stewart-Portsmouth. It also announced an increase in its reservation change fee to $60 from $40. Mar 24, 2008

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