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I'm very much NOT a morning person, maybe that's why my way works better for me - it's easier for me to stay up all night than to get up at 4 am.
This is true for many travelers. But frankly, the Low Cost Carrier model banks on largely leisure travelers who are willing to leave whenever for the lowest possible fare so they're not really trying to get the business travelers who, as has been pointed out, are going to look at premium seats on carriers with which they're loyal (or at least economy seats on carriers with which they're loyal). Moreover, Norwegian is banking on a good deal of traffic from PVD (and other U.S. airports) connecting on to other European destinations. They use their long haul flights as feeders to drive traffic on their "shuttle" routes. So the overnight flights that get passengers into Europe early in the AM are prime for connections whereas the early AM U.S. flights are not - they're better suited for origin and destination (O&D) traffic between major markets (i.e. Boston and London).
GeoffD pointed out that the big legacy international carriers depend on premium cabins being full for profitability. They can be successful with planes going out +/-70% full if the premium cabins are about full. It's more about yields (fare per passenger per mile) than loads (percentage full). LCCs depend on higher load factors because the yield will always be lower. 85-90% is about what a low cost carrier like Norwegian needs to turn a profit. So they've probably got to do that out of Providence for their routes to work. I think they'll get it for most of their Europe routes. They're not stupid, some of those cities (Dublin and Edinburgh) offer good connection options to other parts of Europe. The others have strong O&D numbers without direct flights from the Boston market so they're worth the effort. Edinburgh has been fishing for a Boston flight forever as they get about 24k Boston passengers per year (about 15% of that in premium cabins) and don't have a direct Boston flight (until, technically, this one).
I'm not confident in the Caribbean flights, however. Guadeloupe and Martinique sounds great, but they're just not on most New Englanders' radars. These routes didn't do well out of Boston, I'm not sure how they'll do better out of PVD. We'll see.
Looks like Frontier is adding flights to Austin and Atlanta from Providence: https://thepointsguy.com/2018/02/fro...00000149946871. They're really going after legacy carriers. Atlanta and Charlotte are already well-served from PVD by Delta and American respectively. Even if you don't have interest in flying Frontier, you may still benefit from competition on those routes with lower fares on Delta/American to the hubs and connections from the hubs.
For me, the Frontier Denver flight is pretty useless. DEN-PVD leaves Denver at 8am. For business travel, I want it to leave PVD at 8am and leave DEN at 5:30pm. That’s two extra hotel nights.
Austin is useful as a warm weather hub going west. No snow. I’ve been there a few times on business but it was always summer when it’s 100F every day.
For me, the Frontier Denver flight is pretty useless. DEN-PVD leaves Denver at 8am. For business travel, I want it to leave PVD at 8am and leave DEN at 5:30pm. That’s two extra hotel nights.
Austin is useful as a warm weather hub going west. No snow. I’ve been there a few times on business but it was always summer when it’s 100F every day.
Yeah, I don't understand the scheduling of the Denver flight. At all. DEN is their primary hub so you'd think they'd want the flight to be ideal for transfers as well as for people traveling to DEN for work. To top it off, it's a seasonal route which doesn't really make much sense to me. I think it's intended to be for people from Colorado (and other areas) to affordably get to New England during the peak season, and not vice versa which is too bad.
I like the Austin route. Good destination by itself (I've also only been in August), but it's a Frontier hub (or "focus city") as well which opens up some connection opportunities. I like that Green's route map is expanding West.
Yeah, I don't understand the scheduling of the Denver flight. At all. DEN is their primary hub so you'd think they'd want the flight to be ideal for transfers as well as for people traveling to DEN for work. To top it off, it's a seasonal route which doesn't really make much sense to me. I think it's intended to be for people from Colorado (and other areas) to affordably get to New England during the peak season, and not vice versa which is too bad.
I like the Austin route. Good destination by itself (I've also only been in August), but it's a Frontier hub (or "focus city") as well which opens up some connection opportunities. I like that Green's route map is expanding West.
I don't know what it is. It's just unfortunate because I can't take the flight.
Southwest did the same thing in Hartford. They used to have a 7:50am flight to Denver. They moved it to 6pm around 5 weeks ago. I stopped taking it. Fortunately, United has a morning flight. Unfortunately, it's a 30" seat pitch seat on a 737-800 a lot of the time.
At one point, you could get from PVD and MHT to Vegas, Phoenix, and Denver. Those long haul flights seem to come and go.
Frontier to ATL at least breaks the Delta monopoly pricing. Flights into fortress hubs are really expensive if there is no competition. I've had ATL as my travel pattern before. Not my favorite city. General Sherman needs to do urban renewal again.
Frontier to ATL at least breaks the Delta monopoly pricing. Flights into fortress hubs are really expensive if there is no competition. I've had ATL as my travel pattern before. Not my favorite city. General Sherman needs to do urban renewal again.
Absolutely. Atlanta is somewhere I go frequently (unfortunately), but now that Spirit, Jetblue, and Southwest all fly to ATL out of BOS, flights on all 4 carriers are frequently under $100 r/t. Out of PVD, they're much closer to $200 on a good day and only on Delta.
While it is good to see Green traffic once again on the increase rising to 3.9M last year, it is still a big decline from its high mark of 5.7M back in 2005. The economic downturn and elimination of many flights at the airport took a heavy toll on passenger traffic.
While it is good to see Green traffic once again on the increase rising to 3.9M last year, it is still a big decline from its high mark of 5.7M back in 2005. The economic downturn and elimination of many flights at the airport took a heavy toll on passenger traffic.
there was a redirection of the legacy airlines starting in 2005. Airlines started moving more service to large hubs and focus cities. Mid sized hubs and small sized hubs were greatly affected. This redirection was already in place when the economic downturn took place. Add that to legacies giving up hubs such as CLE, CVG and PIT which also affected PVD numbers. Some mid sized airports have bounced back partly. PVD is especially hurt by this consolidation with it's proximity to BOS. Jet Blue also has an effect where now prices are lower because of them at BOS as compared to PVD. SW entering the BOS market also was detrimental.
Legacies need to increase service and provide new non stop locations. There were as many as 1400 daily seats to ORD between 1998-2008 on UA and AA. UA had as many as 5 daily 757's to ORD in the summer's of 2003,04 and 05. AA used all MD-80's and sometimes had a 757 in. Those number of seats don't disappear in a normal situation. Especially down to the 225 that PVD now has on 3 regional jets to ORD. These discount airlines can also be fly by night service and cannot be depended to stick around. Spirit was here in for two years and making money, but they left for both BOS and BDL.
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