Frontier vurdewrer Embraer 170/190

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Frontier mulls future Embraer 170/190 acquisition
Mary Kirby, New York (04Apr05, 23:48 GMT, 391 words)


Frontier Airlines is considering the acquisition of Embraer’s 170/190 family of aircraft, company VP and CFO Paul Tate tells ATI.

“We’re looking at that [the 170/190] in terms of long-term strategy,” Tate said today during Airfinance Journal’s annual conference in New York.

“I think anybody in our airline business has to take a look at the Embraer 170/190 series. It is a very interesting airplane [family],” he added.

Even if this not an acquisition, US airlines should at least be contemplating “how to compete against it”, notes Frontier’s CFO.

Tate says Frontier does not have a timetable to acquire the Embraer aircraft. He says, however, that should the Denver-based low-cost carrier purchase the 70- to 100-seat family of aircraft, it will offer an inflight product a consistent to that on its fleet of Airbus A319s.

This includes live television onboard every aircraft, an offering Tate believes gives Frontier a certain “competitive advantage” over carriers without in-seat inflight entertainment (IFE).

Frontier currently offers DirecTV over the JetBlue Airways-owned LiveTV platform on its A319s, charging passengers $5 per flight to use the service.

The installed solution contrasts to the portable IFE units that have gained increasing popularity in the airline industry.

“It appears that everybody is jumping on the [portable IFE] or considering it,” says Tate. But, he notes, Frontier “still likes the JetBlue model”.

“It is still unique. You still can’t get [live television] anywhere except on Song, Frontier and JetBlue.”

Embraer 190 launch customer JetBlue will take delivery of its first regional jet this August. It also plans to offer the same IFE currently installed on its A320 fleet.

Regardless of a regional jet purchase, Frontier is planning to increase capacity by 10% to 11% a year for the next three years, in part a reaction to United Airlines’ use of its Denver operations.

“They [United] have not had a focused strategy domestically, but have a clearer view internationally,” he says.

This has allowed Frontier to “continue to chip away slowly with market share in Denver” with the low-cost carrier approaching 20% market share.

Frontier, however, does not intend to try another “secondary hub experiment” in 2005, says Tate. The airline’s attempt to establish a ‘focus city’ in Los Angeles was cancelled last year.

The low-cost carrier recently announced three new mainline markets: Akron/Canton, Ohio; San Antonio, Texas; and Detroit, Michigan.


Source: Air Transport Intelligence news