American Eagle will add nonstop service from Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport and Raleigh-Durham beginning November 4th with six day a week service operated by 37-seat ERJ-135 jets.
American Eagle will also add service between Santa Fe, New Mexico and both Dallas/Ft. Worth and Los Angeles. Service will be operated with 44-seat Embraer 140 regional jets. Daily nonstop service to Dallas will begin December 13th. The following day will begin weekend only service to LAX. The service is part of the payoff from recent upgrades to Santa Fe’s airport allowing it to be reclassified from a Class 3 to a Class 1 airport. Class 3 airports were limited to aircraft with 30 or fewer seats.
United will add lie-flat seats to its international business-class. It aims to complete the upgrade by late 2009.
Spirit Airlines announced nonstop service to Grand Bahama Island in Freeport from Ft. Lauderdale with daily roundtrips beginning December 13th.
Continental Airlines announced new nonstop service from Oklahoma City to Cleveland Hopkins Airport beginning September 30th. Service will be twice daily and operated using 50-seat Embraer 145 regional jets. Continental also operates from Oklahoma City to Newark and Houston.
Continental also announced service from Cleveland to Ottawa beginning the same day using 37-seat Embraer 135 regional jets. Service will be twice daily.
Frontier Airlines will launch nonstop service between Denver and West Palm Beach with one one daily roundtrip flight beginning November 15th. It will be the only nonstop service between these two airports.
Jetblue announced new service from Ft. Lauderdale to Ponce, Puerto Rico. The service will begin November 5th, and is Jetblue’s first destination south of Florida from the airport. Currently, aside from its flights to and from the Northeast, it only serves Long Beach, CA. From Ponce, it flies to New York and to Orlando. Jetblue’s expansion from the airport is long overdue. It has an established presence there and it seems Jetblue will be focusing more on connecting existing cities with new routes, as it attempts to maximize its existing infrastructure rather than new service expansion. Doing so will allow Jetblue to reduce its dependence on JFK Airport, part of its overall problem in dealing with weather-related issues. We expect more out of South Florida from them. Sales fares will start at $59, with normal fares beginning at $99.
Jetblue also launched a fare sale on flights from JFK to San Francisco and Los Angeles area airports to compete with newcomer Virgin America.
Spirit Airlines, not to be outdone with a flight on its home turf…being the dominant low fare carrier from Ft. Lauderdale to the Carribean…announced a day after Jetblue it would be serving Ponce as well…billing it as “Fort Lauderdale’s First Non-Stop Service to Ponce Begins November 1st.” It is promoting the route with its introductory $8 fares. We look forward to seeing if Jetblue’s blue chips and amenities can attract more interest than Spirit’s mascot, Ocho Loco, and its ultra-low-fare philosophy.
