Spoilers

Republic Airways Announces Details of Brand Unification Plan for Frontier and Midwest Airlines

Companies:Republic Airways Holdings Inc.
Press Release Source: Republic Airways Holdings On Tuesday April 13, 2010, 12:09 pm

INDIANAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Republic Airways Holdings (NASDAQ: RJET - News) today announced another important step in the harmonization and ultimate integration of its branded operations, with the selection of the Frontier Airlines name for its consolidated branded network. The retention of the Frontier Airlines name includes its iconic animal trademarks that have garnered more than 80 awards for groundbreaking communications and advertising and will now be leveraged across an even larger customer base.

The decision was announced after analyzing extensive data from customers and employees that underscored the importance of maintaining the best practices of both brands and will also help determine additional enhancements as the two networks transition to one consistent brand.

“Combining two customer-focused, highly complementary brands is a singular opportunity to improve efficiencies throughout our Company while offering more value to our customers,” said Bryan Bedford, chairman, president and CEO of Republic Airways. “During our dialogue with our stakeholders, we were grateful for the passionate input we received throughout the process. We will continue to draw upon it as we preserve and enhance the brand promise so valued by the passengers and communities served by Frontier and Midwest.”

“We are expanding in both service and employment at our Denver and Milwaukee hubs,” Bedford continued. “We are launching 10 new destinations in Denver and five in Milwaukee this year, and will add to our employment bases of 1,200 in Milwaukee and 4,100 in Denver.”

“Although both brands have built strong affinities with air travelers, our customer research concluded that Frontier is the brand best positioned to meet the needs of today’s consumers with its affordable-fares brand promise,” said Ian Arthur, Republic’s vice president of Marketing and Branding. “With an expanded network and an even stronger Frontier brand, we are confident we can meet and exceed the needs of even more consumers.”

Republic expects the integration process to take 12-18 months. In addition to brand consolidation, the process will focus on developing and implementing attributes that will set Frontier Airlines apart in the industry. A dedicated Web site where details about the integration process will be posted has been established at www.FrontierMidwest.com.

Republic Airways Holdings, based in Indianapolis, Indiana is an airline holding company that owns Chautauqua Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Lynx Aviation, Midwest Airlines, Republic Airlines and Shuttle America, collectively “the airlines.” The airlines offer scheduled passenger service on approximately 1,600 flights daily to 123 cities in 44 states, Canada, Costa Rica, and Mexico under branded operations at Frontier and Midwest, and through fixed-fee airline services agreements with five major U.S. airlines. The fixed-fee flights are operated under an airline partner brand, such as AmericanConnection, Continental Express, Delta Connection, United Express, and US Airways Express. The airlines currently employ approximately 11,000 aviation professionals and operate 283 aircraft.

“Safe Harbor” Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Republic Airways Holdings' business which are not historical facts are “forward-looking statements” that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see the summary of risk factors contained in our earnings release.

iPilot

So they poured all that money into Midwest leading up to bankruptcy, bought them outright in bankruptcy, and now have all those pilots to integrate....just to drop the whole thing. Brilliant.

zoooropa

RJET didn't pour any money into Midwest. They loaned them very small amounts, and then they purchased the remaining entity from TPG. TPG reduced the amount of the purchase by an amount greater than what RJET loaned YX. The existing debt has already been cleaned from the RJET balance sheet. Bedford basically stole Midwest, but he purchased Frontier for an even greater deal (a little more than $200MM below estimated value).

Midwest never filed BK, and therefor was never purchased outright in BK.

While I am biased about the Frontier name surviving (I am a F9 pilot), it was a sad day when the last original YX plane stopped flying, and it will be sad when the last RJ gets repainted. It was a truley great airline once upon a time with some of the best flight crews in the business.

RIP Midwest Express.

minimwage4

Sounds like they are rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. The real question for RAH is what's going to happen with their UA, DAL, US contracts now that they're competing against them. Maybe they don't really care for them, their intention might have been to transition to an independent airline operation.

GoBlue

Nothing is going to happen to the contracts. It will be interesting to see what happens when, several years down the road, the contracts expire, if they are allowed to bid on them again. But if you are waiting for them to be outright cancelled, you will be dissapointed.

minimwage4

Yep contracts are kind of hard to cancel, look at Mesa. I meant when they're up.

Slaphappy

Nothing, they are going to use their 190s and a320s to "codeshare" with the majors. This is a way around scope and future of regionals.

waflyboy

You beat me to it! My guess is Mother United likes this deal a little more than most people think.

Iowa Farm Boy

What is the status of the Midwest Flight Crews?

A nice bunch of folks...

jsled

Codeshare is not revenue sharing or fee for departure. If codeshare is the "future of the regionals" then the past is repeating itself. Codeshare was how the regionals used to operate. Codesharing with a major and getting the revenue from the flights it operated. The problem was that mainline was only getting feed, not direct revenue from the regional flight. Thats why fee for departure came into being. With ffd, a major can get feed AND revenue from a regional flight. Codesharing is nice to fill some extra seats, but it will not allow you to farm out your airline. You will starve while your codeshare partner gets rich. Make no mistake, the majors (UAL in particular) want fee for departure, "joint ventures", and "revenue sharing". That way they can get the revenue without the operating expense.