Frontier Airlines

USA3000, Philadelphia's hometown airline and a sister company to Apple Vacations Inc., will stop flying its own aircraft from Philadelphia to Cancun and Punta Cana the middle of this month. Instead, Frontier Airlines will pick up the USA3000 flights several times a week to those destinations, operating a charter service for Newtown Square-based Apple Vacations. "The service still remains the same, just the paint job changes," said Timothy Mullen, president of Apple Vacations.

Low-fare Frontier Airlines will make Trenton-Mercer Airport its commercial base on the East Coast and last week ended its one route - with about one daily flight - out of Philadelphia International Airport to Denver. "Why Trenton? It's a densely populated area - 21/2 million people live closer in drive time to Trenton than any other airport with commercial airline service," said Daniel Shurz, a senior vice president of Frontier. Since November, the Denver-based carrier has announced 10 nonstop destinations from the small Mercer County airport, beginning with two Orlando, Fla., departures and arrivals a week.

Frontier Airlines announced it will add flights from Trenton-Mercer Airport to five additional cities - Atlanta, Chicago-Midway airport, Detroit, Columbus, Ohio, and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. - starting in April. Frontier plans to begin fights from the Mercer County airport later this month to the Florida cities of Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa, as well as New Orleans. The airline began flying to Orlando, Fla. in November. The Fort Myers and Tampa flights begin Jan. 31, the New Orleans flight on Feb. 1, and the Fort Lauderdale route will begin Feb. 2. The introductory fares range from $69 to $79 each way. Frontier announced Monday introductory fares as low as $29 each way to Columbus, Detroit and Raleigh-Durham, and $49 one-way introductory fares to Atlanta and Chicago-Midway, through Jan. 23 if booked through www.FlyFrontier.com/Trenton . Seats are limited at these fares and certain flights and days of travel may be unavailable, the carrier said.

Planning to fly Frontier Airlines on Friday? You might want to check your flight status. The airline says a severe hailstorm over Denver International Airport, Frontier's hometown airport, Wednesday night left many planes damaged and numerous flights canceled. Additional cancellations are expected. "The timing of this damaging storm couldn't have been worse," said Cliff Van Leuven, vice president of customer service. "High summer travel loads and the fact that other carriers at DIA were hit make it difficult to place passengers with other airlines, so we are doing all we can to minimize the pain of our guests' travel.

I don't think you can look at what happened over the past week at Frontier Airlines and feel too good about flying anymore. It is possible, of course, that you didn't feel too good about flying even before last week, but the events and pronouncements leading to and following the cancellation of all the company's flights Sunday morning had to reinforce the apprehensions you had. I know this because flying is one of those activities that produces...

Southwest Airlines Co., Philly's No. 2 carrier, wants to buy bankrupt Frontier Airlines Inc. for $170 million - and then phase out its rival. If Southwest is successful, it would have little impact on passengers at Philadelphia International Airport. Frontier has one flight a day to Denver from Terminal A-East here. Frontier operates two-thirds of its flights west of the Mississippi River and transports fewer than 1 percent of Philadelphia passengers. Acquiring Frontier is a big deal to Dallas-based Southwest, which transports 12 percent of passengers here.

"This is a no-brainer," lawyer Gerry Norton said, standing in the quick-moving security lane at Trenton-Mercer Airport, headed to Orlando, Fla., with his family. When he first heard that Frontier Airlines would be flying out of Trenton, Norton, who lives in central New Jersey and works in Fox Rothschild L.L.P.'s Princeton office, said, "This is great!" "It's convenient. Parking is free. The planes are a good size, 138 seats. It took me 20 minutes to drive here. " "It gets rid of the whole hassle of traveling by air," said Norton, whose wife, Jennifer; son, Connor, 10, and daughter, Riley, 5, also were among the seemingly happy travelers who boarded Frontier's Airbus A-319 Friday morning.

Airlines survived $147-a-barrel oil, a financial collapse on Wall Street, and a recession in 2008 by doing two things: slashing capacity - fewer flights, different-size aircrafts, recalibrated routes - and charging annoying fees for everything from baggage to "choice" seats. Nationwide, there are 8 percent fewer airplane seats with passengers in them than five years ago, according to airline analyst Daniel McKenzie, of Buckingham Research Group in New York. He recently analyzed which cities got hardest hit with seat cuts and which had the most growth.

Frontier Airlines will suspend flights from the Trenton/Mercer Airport in Ewing, N.J., from Sept. 9 through Nov. 7 because of a scheduled runway project. Airport officials say the project involves safety upgrades required by the Federal Aviation Administration. Frontier, which began scheduled service at the Trenton airport in January, called the suspension temporary and thanked county officials for moving the work to the "lowest demand period of the year. " The move comes as Frontier is set to offer new low-fare service, starting April 8, from Trenton to five new nonstop destinations: Atlanta; Chicago-Midway; Columbus, Ohio; Detroit, and Raleigh/Durham.

Air-traffic controller furloughs ended over the weekend. Snarled operations that caused delays for travelers, especially in the New York City area, are back to normal. But no one knows for sure what the legislation untangling the situation, passed by Congress and signed by the president, will mean for 149 small airport traffic-control towers slated for reduced hours or closure June 15 because of the federal spending cuts. Airfields affected by the closures - including Trenton-Mercer Airport, where Frontier Airlines now flies to 10 cities, and the Harrisburg, Latrobe, and Lancaster airports in Pennsylvania - are hopeful the transfer of up to $253 million from an airport-improvement program to prevent reduced operations and staffing through Sept.

Airlines survived $147-a-barrel oil, a financial collapse on Wall Street, and a recession in 2008 by doing two things: slashing capacity - fewer flights, different-size aircrafts, recalibrated routes - and charging annoying fees for everything from baggage to "choice" seats. Nationwide, there are 8 percent fewer airplane seats with passengers in them than five years ago, according to airline analyst Daniel McKenzie, of Buckingham Research Group in New York. He recently analyzed which cities got hardest hit with seat cuts and which had the most growth.

NEW YORK - Airlines are struggling this year to get planes to the gate on time. The government said Thursday that 80.3 percent of flights by U.S. carriers arrived on time in January and February. That's down from a record 84.9 percent during last year's storm-free winter. Mother Nature hasn't been as cooperative. The percent of flights canceled in February doubled to 2.4 percent from the same month in 2012. Hawaiian Airlines had the best on-time rating in February, 91.8 percent.

In the Region Amtrak's March ridership sets record   Amtrak said its March ridership set a record as the best month in the national railroad's 42-year history. Buoyed by the March performance, ridership was up about 1 percent for the six-month period October 2012 through March 2013, despite service interruptions caused by Hurricane Sandy and a February blizzard in parts of the Northeast, spokesman Steve Kulm said. Kulm said Amtrak expects to end its fiscal year in September "at or above last year's record of 31.2 million passengers.

The federal budget ax that is known as the sequester is starting to hurt the airline industry. While flights have not yet been canceled in response to the cuts, and there are not long lines at security screening in airports, including Philadelphia International, US Airways Group and Delta Air Lines said the federal spending cuts reduced March revenue due to fewer last-minute bookings. US Airways said that passenger revenue for each "seat mile" flown was flat in March compared with March 2012.

Frontier Airlines will suspend flights from the Trenton/Mercer Airport in Ewing, N.J., from Sept. 9 through Nov. 7 because of a scheduled runway project. Airport officials say the project involves safety upgrades required by the Federal Aviation Administration. Frontier, which began scheduled service at the Trenton airport in January, called the suspension temporary and thanked county officials for moving the work to the "lowest demand period of the year. " The move comes as Frontier is set to offer new low-fare service, starting April 8, from Trenton to five new nonstop destinations: Atlanta; Chicago-Midway; Columbus, Ohio; Detroit, and Raleigh/Durham.

N.J. lieutenant Gov. Kim Guadagno announced a $2.5 million state grant for Trenton-Mercer Airport to upgrade a taxiway, part of a $12 million project that will include paving, grading, installing lights and other improvements. Mercer County will contribute $132,000 and is seeking grants from the Federal Aviation Administration for the balance. Denver-based Frontier Airlines is making Trenton-Mercer its northeast base, with nonstop service now to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando and Tampa, Fla. and New Orleans.

"This is a no-brainer," lawyer Gerry Norton said, standing in the quick-moving security lane at Trenton-Mercer Airport, headed to Orlando, Fla., with his family. When he first heard that Frontier Airlines would be flying out of Trenton, Norton, who lives in central New Jersey and works in Fox Rothschild L.L.P.'s Princeton office, said, "This is great!" "It's convenient. Parking is free. The planes are a good size, 138 seats. It took me 20 minutes to drive here. " "It gets rid of the whole hassle of traveling by air," said Norton, whose wife, Jennifer; son, Connor, 10, and daughter, Riley, 5, also were among the seemingly happy travelers who boarded Frontier's Airbus A-319 Friday morning.

Low-fare Frontier Airlines will make Trenton-Mercer Airport its commercial base on the East Coast and last week ended its one route - with about one daily flight - out of Philadelphia International Airport to Denver. "Why Trenton? It's a densely populated area - 21/2 million people live closer in drive time to Trenton than any other airport with commercial airline service," said Daniel Shurz, a senior vice president of Frontier. Since November, the Denver-based carrier has announced 10 nonstop destinations from the small Mercer County airport, beginning with two Orlando, Fla., departures and arrivals a week.

Frontier Airlines announced it will add flights from Trenton-Mercer Airport to five additional cities - Atlanta, Chicago-Midway airport, Detroit, Columbus, Ohio, and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. - starting in April. Frontier plans to begin fights from the Mercer County airport later this month to the Florida cities of Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa, as well as New Orleans. The airline began flying to Orlando, Fla. in November. The Fort Myers and Tampa flights begin Jan. 31, the New Orleans flight on Feb. 1, and the Fort Lauderdale route will begin Feb. 2. The introductory fares range from $69 to $79 each way. Frontier announced Monday introductory fares as low as $29 each way to Columbus, Detroit and Raleigh-Durham, and $49 one-way introductory fares to Atlanta and Chicago-Midway, through Jan. 23 if booked through www.FlyFrontier.com/Trenton . Seats are limited at these fares and certain flights and days of travel may be unavailable, the carrier said.