New Gates at RDU
01-29-2019, 06:57 PM
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Originally Posted by Fast90
01-30-2019, 11:56 AM
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01-31-2019, 09:08 PM
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Frontier Airlines is adding eight more destinations from Raleigh-Durham International Airport, while also dropping three destinations. With flights 32 places from RDU in the coming year Frontier will have more destinations than any other airline.
By Frontier Airlines
MORRISVILLE
Passengers boarding Frontier Airlines flights at Raleigh-Durham International Airport may someday need to walk outside and climb stairs or ramps to enter doors at the front and back of the airplane.
Frontier has asked RDU to accommodate ground-level, dual-door boarding for its planes in the future, according to airport CEO Michael Landguth. Frontier told airport officials that a more efficient boarding system could save Frontier 15 minutes between flights, leaving more time for planes to be in the air or available for maintenance.
“The CEO told me ... ‘Those markets that are willing to work with us and put this into play are the markets where we’re going to continue to expand in, and those that don’t we won’t,” Landguth told members of the Airport Authority on Tuesday.
Frontier is RDU’s fastest-growing airline, announcing new service to 18 destinations in 2018 and another eight so far this year.
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RDU thinks it can satisfy Frontier’s boarding request in Terminal 1, where Southwest Airlines operates out of five gates. The other four gates in the building haven’t been used in years, and the airport plans to build new ticketing counters and a baggage handling system that would allow it to reopen the gates to handle growth in travelers.
Two of those gates could be configured to allow passengers to walk outside to their plane, where rolling stairs or ramps would lead to the front and rear doors, said William Sandifer, the airport’s chief operating officer. The other two restored gates would have air-conditioned jet bridges like those used by Southwest and all other airlines in Terminal 2.
Passengers commonly go out onto the apron to board regional jets at airports across the country. But ground-level boarding of large jets, such as the Airbus A320s flown by Frontier, is a throw-back to an earlier era of air travel. In explaining how it might work at RDU, Sandifer showed two slides of ground-level boarding — one showing passengers climbing into the front and back of a plane in Detroit in the 1960s and a recent photo of passengers lined up to do the same on a Frontier jet in Trenton, N.J.
“It’s not a new concept,” he said.
Moving Frontier to Terminal 1 would free up space in Terminal 2, where airlines have leased all the available gates, Sandifer said. Other low-cost carriers Allegiant and Spirit would also be good candidates to move to the restored gates in Terminal 1, he said, where they would at times be expected to use the ground-level boarding gates.
Sandifer said it would be a few months before airport staff asks the Airport Authority to approve the ground-level, dual-door boarding concept in Terminal 1.
Frontier passengers already get on and off at ground-level at airports without jetways, including in Trenton, N.J., and Branson, Mo., said Daniel Shurz, Frontier’s senior vice president for commercial operations. Shurz said the practice is common in other parts of the world and that Frontier is talking to several larger U.S. airports like RDU about adopting it.
Not only does it save the airline money by making better use of its planes and boarding gates, Shurz said, but it also benefits passengers.
“If you’re sitting in the back of an airplane, one of the most frustrating parts of the flight is waiting for everyone else to get off,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday. “Being faster makes customers happy, particularly at the end of the journey.”
Frontier hopes eventually to have dual-door boarding at a “critical mass” of airports in its network. At some it may mean boarding passengers in the front door through a jetway, while taking others outside to get on in the back. But having all passengers boarding on the ground, the way Frontier hopes to do it at RDU, is easier, Shurz said.
“It’s simpler from a customer perspective, simpler to manage,” he said.
Landguth said other airlines, particularly low-cost carriers, may follow Frontier’s lead if the concept works well.
“I gotta believe this could be a domino effect,” he said. “Once Frontier, if they really do this on a mass scale, others would have to follow to be competitive.”
Landguth said he expects many passengers would trade the inconvenience of braving the weather and climbing stairs if they thought it helped lower their fare and got them on and off the plane faster. He noted that the airport in Austin refurbished an unused terminal for low-cost carriers including Frontier without jet bridges and said the airport’s director reports no complaints from passengers.
“You think about Texas during the summer — thunderstorms and heat,” Landguth said. “They figured out how to make it work. And the customers recognize that, ‘Hey, this is what I paid for, but I get on and off quicker.’ ”
Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/bu...#storylink=cpy
By Frontier Airlines
MORRISVILLE
Passengers boarding Frontier Airlines flights at Raleigh-Durham International Airport may someday need to walk outside and climb stairs or ramps to enter doors at the front and back of the airplane.
Frontier has asked RDU to accommodate ground-level, dual-door boarding for its planes in the future, according to airport CEO Michael Landguth. Frontier told airport officials that a more efficient boarding system could save Frontier 15 minutes between flights, leaving more time for planes to be in the air or available for maintenance.
“The CEO told me ... ‘Those markets that are willing to work with us and put this into play are the markets where we’re going to continue to expand in, and those that don’t we won’t,” Landguth told members of the Airport Authority on Tuesday.
Frontier is RDU’s fastest-growing airline, announcing new service to 18 destinations in 2018 and another eight so far this year.
DIGITAL ACCESS FOR ONLY $0.99
For the most comprehensive local coverage, subscribe today.
SUBSCRIBE NOW
#READLOCAL
RDU thinks it can satisfy Frontier’s boarding request in Terminal 1, where Southwest Airlines operates out of five gates. The other four gates in the building haven’t been used in years, and the airport plans to build new ticketing counters and a baggage handling system that would allow it to reopen the gates to handle growth in travelers.
Two of those gates could be configured to allow passengers to walk outside to their plane, where rolling stairs or ramps would lead to the front and rear doors, said William Sandifer, the airport’s chief operating officer. The other two restored gates would have air-conditioned jet bridges like those used by Southwest and all other airlines in Terminal 2.
Passengers commonly go out onto the apron to board regional jets at airports across the country. But ground-level boarding of large jets, such as the Airbus A320s flown by Frontier, is a throw-back to an earlier era of air travel. In explaining how it might work at RDU, Sandifer showed two slides of ground-level boarding — one showing passengers climbing into the front and back of a plane in Detroit in the 1960s and a recent photo of passengers lined up to do the same on a Frontier jet in Trenton, N.J.
“It’s not a new concept,” he said.
Moving Frontier to Terminal 1 would free up space in Terminal 2, where airlines have leased all the available gates, Sandifer said. Other low-cost carriers Allegiant and Spirit would also be good candidates to move to the restored gates in Terminal 1, he said, where they would at times be expected to use the ground-level boarding gates.
Sandifer said it would be a few months before airport staff asks the Airport Authority to approve the ground-level, dual-door boarding concept in Terminal 1.
Frontier passengers already get on and off at ground-level at airports without jetways, including in Trenton, N.J., and Branson, Mo., said Daniel Shurz, Frontier’s senior vice president for commercial operations. Shurz said the practice is common in other parts of the world and that Frontier is talking to several larger U.S. airports like RDU about adopting it.
Not only does it save the airline money by making better use of its planes and boarding gates, Shurz said, but it also benefits passengers.
“If you’re sitting in the back of an airplane, one of the most frustrating parts of the flight is waiting for everyone else to get off,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday. “Being faster makes customers happy, particularly at the end of the journey.”
Frontier hopes eventually to have dual-door boarding at a “critical mass” of airports in its network. At some it may mean boarding passengers in the front door through a jetway, while taking others outside to get on in the back. But having all passengers boarding on the ground, the way Frontier hopes to do it at RDU, is easier, Shurz said.
“It’s simpler from a customer perspective, simpler to manage,” he said.
Landguth said other airlines, particularly low-cost carriers, may follow Frontier’s lead if the concept works well.
“I gotta believe this could be a domino effect,” he said. “Once Frontier, if they really do this on a mass scale, others would have to follow to be competitive.”
Landguth said he expects many passengers would trade the inconvenience of braving the weather and climbing stairs if they thought it helped lower their fare and got them on and off the plane faster. He noted that the airport in Austin refurbished an unused terminal for low-cost carriers including Frontier without jet bridges and said the airport’s director reports no complaints from passengers.
“You think about Texas during the summer — thunderstorms and heat,” Landguth said. “They figured out how to make it work. And the customers recognize that, ‘Hey, this is what I paid for, but I get on and off quicker.’ ”
Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/bu...#storylink=cpy
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