Low-Cost Lines Offer Discounts
<B> Low-Cost Lines Offer Discounts</B>
By Lauren Bielski
What started as a unique idea by one carrier is fast becoming a trend, as two new airlines this month began offering meeting fares and rewarding planners willing to book early.
Pitting itself as a low-cost alternative to the major carriers on flights to the Sunbelt region, Frontier Airlines earlier this spring introduced meetings and conventions fares of 10 percent off its unrestricted fare and an additional 5 percent off fares purchased 60 days in advance on all of its routes.
Meanwhile, Midwest Express Airlines announced the availability of zone fares for travelers attending a convention or corporate meeting for which it is an official carrier, plus 60-day advanced purchase discounts of an additional 4 percent off an automatic sign-on discount of 6 percent. Participating firms must sign an agreement and will receive an identifier code for groups of 10 or more.
Frontier has built a burgeoning reputation on its low-cost tickets and "spirit of the West" theme. With this latest move, it is attempting to position itself as the lowest cost option for flights from New York's La Guardia, Boston's Logan International and Baltimore's Baltimore-Washington International Airports to Albuquerque, El Paso, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Seattle.
Frontier sales director Tom Allee said that offering meeting fares is one indicator of the carrier's growing maturity--and that the recent Department of Transportation decision to open up slot-controlled La Guardia represented an opportunity upon which the carrier was anxious to capitalize. But he also noted that even Frontier's walk-up fares often can't be beat.
"We've evolved to the point where we can offer group fares," Allee said of the four-year-old carrier.
Frontier will be in an even better position to address the corporate market, which Allee said already has bought in to its low-cost, high-safety track record.
"We've gotten quite a bit of corporate support even before we offered the group fares. These days, most corporate travel managers are examining the company's T&E with greater scrutiny, so our timing for a comeback and expansion couldn't have been better," Allee said.
Frontier has recently geared up for more action, purchasing its 14th aircraft--a Boeing 737 300--in the beginning of the first quarter. It now flies 60 daily arrivals and departures out of its hub at Denver International Airport. As part of the concessions it is offering to planners, Frontier includes a free ticket with every 40 tickets booked plus one free ticket for site inspections with the booking of a 100-passenger block.
Midwest, a carrier introduced in 1984, recently reported that revenue passenger miles increased 10.6 percent in March 1998 to 138.8 million over the preceding March.
Zone fares, an easy-to-budget alternative to other fare structures, also should help grow Midwest's base of loyal business clientele and fill gaps posed by the transient market. Travelers not qualifying for an excursion fare will benefit from new zone fares, said convention marketing and sales manager Lynda Kohler. She explained that Midwest was prompted to roll out the program in anticipation of an increased demand for meetings due to the new convention center in Milwaukee, for which the carrier secured naming rights.
Tickets require a minimum two-night stay and a seven-day advanced purchase, but no Saturday-night stay is necessary.
Travel from zone 1 (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Dallas/Ft. Worth) to Milwaukee is $363 one way; travel from Mid-America to Toronto, representing zone 2, is $187 one way; travel from the East Coast and Atlanta, representing zone 3, is $260 one way; and travel from Florida cities, zone 4, is $368 one way.