Frontier has announced some new flights recently but there is one that caught my eye for two reasons.  One, I know and use the Newport News / Williamsburg Airport and, two, that’s one strange route.

Now, the Newport News / Williamsburg airport is a secondary airport for the Norfolk area but it is really only convenient to a small portion of Norfolk and those living on the peninsula between Norfolk and Williamsburg.  (Anything much past Williamsburg is more conveniently served by Richmond International Airport (RIC).   

Understand, I think Republic/Frontier clearly saw something to the route because they’re putting an E-190 jet on it first and plan to upgrade it to an A318 later.  However, it puzzles me as to what they saw since there are exactly ZERO non-stop flights between those two areas at present.  Sure, I would imagine there is some connecting traffic via AA and United Airlines through both DFW and ORD but there just can’t be much or one of those two airlines would have something working on that route by now. 

This one just doesn’t make much sense to me.  There are no obvious business ties between the two cities and even the military contractors that have offices in both cities don’t have much business that is shared between the services in those two cities.*   Yes, Norfolk is a big military area but it is primarily a Navy/Marines area where Colorado is primarily Air Force.  Newport News / Williamsburg is a nice airport to fly into if you’re going to that side of Norfolk or anywhere on that side of the bay.  I like it because I visit family in Williamsburg and its just a 15 minute drive from there to the airport compared to nearly an hour to Norfolk (ORF) or an hour or more to Richmond (RIC).  I’m glad for Airtran serving it but while I do see the connection for Airtran, I don’t see it for Frontier. 

There are plenty of connections serving DEN-PHF but they all funnel to flights from Atlanta or Charlotte (Delta/Airtran and US Airways respectively).  Those flights are all on small RJ’s and the fares, frankly, don’t seem to offer a whole lot of yield either.  Prices for a late February flight with a Saturday overnight stay are as low as $205 ranging up to about $240 (for any flight someone would realistically take.)  That doesn’t suggest a lot of yield available. 

I’d love to know what Frontier saw that made it seem such a smart move.

* I work for a major first tier Defense contractor myself based in Richardson, Texas.

Filed under: Airline News, Airline Service by ajax