Frontier Airlines to relocate all domestic flights from Philadelphia to Trenton-Mercer Airport

Frontier Airways expands commercial flights at Trenton-Mercer Airport 1/11/2013

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(Gallery by Andrew Miller)

Mercer County residents may have noticed the blizzard of print and radio ads, the roadside billboards and the signs hanging in local shopping malls advertising the flights that Frontier Airlines has begun offering at Trenton-Mercer Airport.

What they didn’t know was that Frontier plans to make the little-used Ewing airport its East Coast hub and is pulling its domestic flights out of Philadelphia International, where routes cannot be expanded easily.

Since November, in very rapid succession, Frontier has initiated flights to Orlando from Trenton-Mercer and has announced plans for nine more destinations from the Scotch Road airport, all of them set to begin by mid-April.

The Denver-based airline flies the majority of its flights on routes originating from Denver International Airport, but it needs a base of operations on the East Coast, and Trenton fits perfectly, said Daniel Shurz, Frontier’s vice president of finance.

“As we move forward in the future Denver, is going to be crucial,” Shurz said. “But we know we have to find ways to diversify.”

On Monday, while announcing additional routes to be added at Trenton-Mercer, Frontier also moved to cease domestic flights from Philadelphia International Airport. Shurz said the goal is to avoid having Frontier compete with itself to fill planes at both airports.

In addition to the Orlando service already established at Trenton-Mercer, in three weeks Frontier will begin flights to three other cities in Florida — Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa — as well as New Orleans. The second week in April, the airline will begin service from Trenton-Mercer to Atlanta, Chicago (Midway), Columbus, Raleigh-Durham and Detroit. It is unclear how many more flights would be added to build the hub that Frontier has envisioned.

Trenton-Mercer has been underused for years as numerous small airlines tried to establish themselves there and failed. Frontier, with routes all over the domestic United States and into Central America, should be far better capitalized to succeed at the Mercer hub initiative.

Mercer County officials last week announced their intentions to take a fresh look at the airline terminal and decide what sort of improvements would be necessary to accommodate Frontier’s growth.

Passengers check in at the Frontier Airlines desk before a flight to Orlando. Frontier Airways is expanding commercial flights offered at Trenton-Mercer Airport in Ewing on Friday, January 11, 2013. To purchase prints of this photo, visit TimesofTrenton.zenfolio.com

Former county executive Bob Prunetti, now the president and CEO of the MidJersey Chamber of Commerce, said the limited success of the airport, which also serves corporate traffic and flight school operations, has long been a concern for the county. In 1998 the county, under Prunetti’s administration, sought approvals to expand the terminal to attract and retain commercial passenger carriers.

Prunetti said that Frontier’s preliminary success at the airport is indicative of the possibilities he saw back then.

“What Frontier has done is, they see the realities that the major airports are getting more and more crowded,” Prunetti said. “I absolutely think that eventually it is going to be attractive for other airlines.”

He warned that before the county brings in another airline or more flights, officials should consider reconfiguring the airport’s terminal because it is too crowded.

Airline consultant Ross Aimer, who is a retired United Airlines pilot and now CEO of Aero Consulting Experts, said the move into smaller airports is a well-established trend.

“This was started by Southwest many years ago where, instead of going into major airports — which are not only expensive but are limited in the number of operations and traffic flows — they started in smaller, non-hub, airports,” Aimer said.

Aimer said the thing that makes Trenton-Mercer such a desirable place to start such a venture is its proximity to larger markets around Philadelphia and Newark, where there are many air travelers who would find Ewing a convenient jumping-off point.

Prunetti’s attempts to upgrade Trenton-Mercer for larger commercial flying operations were buffeted by intense community debate over the noise and other environmental pollution and traffic congestion that more air traffic would produce. Frontier may face the same obstacle, though the major group that opposed expanded Trenton-Mercer operations has since disbanded.

In addition, Frontier will have to succeed where many other airlines — 14 since the 1970s — have failed.

Shurz said Frontier acknowledges the failures of those airlines, but, he said, the airline has tried to learn from others’ mistakes. Shurz said the company’s size may make a difference, and he said the expansion at Trenton-Mercer Airport is an “experiment” for Frontier and they are committed to seeing it become successful.

“This is part of a new business strategy for the company and it is important that we give it our full best efforts to make it work,” Shurz said.

A chief difference in Frontier’s business plan is its emphasis on flying to vacation destinations, Shurz said. Many of the failed commercial airlines were in the market for business travelers and didn’t fly to locations that leisure travelers would want to visit.

Freeholder Lucylle Walter, a Ewing resident who has long been critical of activities at the airport, said she hopes that the county will be cautious before putting money into terminal improvements.

“I have always been concerned about putting money into the airport until we have proven revenues coming in,” Walter said. “We have a great start to Frontier Airlines, but things will settle down a little bit.”

The airline acknowledges that the introductory excitement over the low fares will be temporary. “We are in this market and we know it is going to take some time to get a steady level of performance,” Shurz said.

The biggest challenge for the company, Shurz said, is to increase customer awareness about Trenton-Mercer airport and about Frontier Airlines.

“The vast majority of our target market has never flown out of Trenton-Mercer and we have to make sure people know that the airport exists,” Shurz said.

Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5717.

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