Not really a surprise but Bedford announced it today...

Republic Airways looking into split with Frontier

In a story just crossing the newswires, The Associated Press writes:

Frontier Airlines could soon be up for sale.

Its current owner, Republic Airways, says it's hiring advisers to look at selling Frontier, or spinning it off to current Republic shareholders. In any case, it expects to separate Frontier from its other business.

Frontier has been losing money. Republic has been turning around the airline's finances by getting rid of smaller planes and cutting unprofitable flights, especially in Milwaukee.

Bryan Bedford, the chairman and CEO of Republic Airways Holdings Inc., says Frontier should be profitable next year so the time has come to look for a way to split it from Republic. He says Republic will return to its roots feeding passengers to major airlines such as Delta and US Airways.

Republic bought Denver-based Frontier out of bankruptcy protection in 2009.

 

Thank god...

 

Independence Air, ExpressJet and now Republic. For some reason, the regionals are unable to break through and compete on their own. While I'm not a business expert and have no idea why this is, I have no doubt that others will attempt the jump and again fall short.

 

Running a real airline in the real world is a far cry from playing with airplanes in a FFD guaranteed profit scope gutting fantasy land.

They weren't the first and they won't be the last.

 

Apparently Republic only desires to own money losing airlines. haha. Profit? Thats not allowed!

 

Will it be spun off with the original pilots? Any inside info...

 

Yep, just what I thought. It's a tough business Bedford, why did you think you'd "have all the answers"

If I were Jetblue, I'd buy Frontier in a heartbeat. Same fleets, same enthusiasm by the employees, nice western hub, good routes to Mexico.

 

I could see B6 or VX for a quick way to expand their market share without adding any additional real capacity. We are a lot closer to shedding capacity then adding it, so I don't think they are in the cards for us.

The fun starts when Jerry Atkin's hand (and ego) is forced by the evolving regional sector. My bet is unless SWA caves on scope or USAir/AA is broken up somehow in SKYW's favor, he will try an IndyAir as by then he will have close to a billion in the bank. They will bleed out eventually and fade away, but it will be a rough few years for the industry to fend off yet another fare/yield trashing start up with several times more cash on day one than any start up in history.

 

I personally think it would be a bad move to compete with SWA and The worlds largest airline in DEN, and gain a MKE hub with a major AirTran/SWA entrenchment.

but...


JetBlue is pushing the pilots to sign away 10% of the ASM's. It would be interesting if JetBlue purchased frontier with a guaranteed FFD contract with republic to operate the 170/190's.(I hope this isnt the case.)

I guess they changed the airbus order today as well. (Republic Airways Confirms Order for 80 Airbus A320neo Family Aircraft - MarketWatch) it was 40- A320 40-A319 now 60-A320 20-A319 Whoever buys them will gain access to 80 Airbus NEO orders too.

 

These circumstances have never happened before, but there is a fence for another 6.5 years, so one would have to assume that the pilots go with the airplanes. IBT will likely argue differently.