Airtran discontinuing service at ABE August 12th UPDATE: Frontier coming 5/26!!

[DonnaL]

Hey Tara......I'm not holding my breath, but, SWA does currently fly a charter to/from AVP (Wilkes-Barre-Scranton) a few times a month with Boscov's Travel. It would be absolutely wonderful for me if SWA decided to begin service there....since AVP is practically in my backyard!! Looking at the SWA route map.....AVP is two hours from both PHL and EWR....whereas ABE is only about an hour from PHL and about an hour and half from EWR..so if that's what the airline is looking at....it would make better sense. Oh well......at least for right now....I guess we're back to PHL also.....hate that 2 hour drive down 476!!

 

[kar0066]

LVIA did release a statement that they are going find a new carrier to replace Airtran and they are hoping to do it before August. I am going to cross my fingers! It was in the Morning Call this morning. I am too low tech to know how to post the link. (sorry!). The article did say 5000 people fly out of ABE a month to Florida and they do not want to lose that revenue.

 

[TaraPA]

I just read it. Ok so at least ABE knows they have a huge hole to fill. AT was 13% of their entire business - that's huge! I did email LVIA yesterday with my concerns (as well as SW) but havent' heard anything back.

"Spirit and Frontier were identified as potential recruits because both are low-cost airlines similar to AirTran and Southwest, and both operate out of other airports managed by Virginia-based AvPorts Management, which is operating LVIA."

That's promising as well, even though I don't know much about them. I don't even care so much about the cost, it's losing the non-stop flight that is my biggest concern.

Hope this link works:

http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-allentown-pa-airport-southwest-20120124,0,5259179.story

 

[NotUrsula]

It's not fun, but that is today's reality as the cost of operating an airline gets steeper and steeper. I've seen it at my airport, which as recently as 15 years ago was one of the largest int'l hubs in the US. Now we have no foreign destinations except in Mexico and the Caribbean, and precious few of those. The metro area is 4 million people, but the airlines say that isn't a big enough city to need non-stop service to most places. The truth is that it isn't the size of the population that counts at all.

These days the real key to keeping an active airport is the presence of Fortune-500 company HQ's. If you've got a lot of them, you will get a lot of non-stops to the places that their employees need to go. If not, forget it. There is no money in having an active leisure market, airports need a lot of business travelers to be profitable.

 

[It'sWDW4me]

I've heard of both Spirit and Frontier but I can't remember if I heard good things or bad. I THINK Frontier was good things.

Here's hoping they can get a carrier in with direct flights to MCO for mid-August. If not, we may just rent a car (ours are both 10+ years old) and drive - would be a lot cheaper than $300 pp air.

 

[bobrex]

Awww Tarapa, you could always hitch a ride with me to PHL. I pay less less to park at on offsite airport lot than I would at ABE.
Wouldn't it be worth the 75 minute drive to be in WDW at 2.5 hrs??

I haven't flown from ABE in many, many years. The Airtran schedule never meshed with mine, and sometimes the fares were higher than I could get with SW out of PHL.

When I heard of the merger, i was hopeful that SW would come to ABE, but I doubted it because of the proximity to PHL.

I was never able to find SW flights out of PHL that were cheaper than AT flights out of ABE. I just did a comparison for my April trip (4/1-4/7). I paid a little over 500 bucks for 2 people (DW and me), including priority boarding and seat selection. The same trip on SW (using business select to get the priority boarding) costs $1480! That's almost 3X the price!!!!!

I also checked for my July trip (6/30 - 7/7). If I use SW's "wanna get away" pricing it's 700 bucks. And at that price I don't get priority boarding or seat selection. I paid 500 bucks for AT with priority and seat.

And that doesn't include the gas, tolls, and parking costs (my nephew drops us off) of running down to philly. Not to mention that with ABE I can leave my house about hour and 15 minutes before the flight leaves. With philly I have to leave 2 hours earler.

I don't see any advantage to philly.

 

[livinlife25]

Allegiant is picking up a couple flights to MCO from bloomington illinois. Maybe they will for you guys too. Unfortunately its only twice a week and the sunday flight leaves mco at 7:10 am so I have no idea how we are going to do that.

 

[mom2of2]

that just sucks! We live 20 min from MCO and LVIA is 25 min from my mom's house. We fly back and forth a few times a year. I used to fly only SW but AT was way cheaper and way closer. Crap! I hate going to Phillie

 

[TaraPA]

Allegiant is picking up a couple flights to MCO from bloomington illinois. Maybe they will for you guys too. Unfortunately its only twice a week and the sunday flight leaves mco at 7:10 am so I have no idea how we are going to do that.

Where did you see this? Allegiant ended their contract to fly into MCO awhile ago, and when I check the website it only shows Orlando Sanford, not MCO. It would be great news if they were headed back to MCO!

 

[Traveliz]

Where did you see this? Allegiant ended their contract to fly into MCO awhile ago, and when I check the website it only shows Orlando Sanford, not MCO. It would be great news if they were headed back to MCO!

Allegiant did add a couple of flights from Bloomington to Orlando but they are not flying into MCO - they are flying in and out of Sanford.

Liz

 

[TaraPA]

I figured the OP ment Sanford, and not MCO! Wishful thinking there I guess.

 

[pamjb]

I was never able to find SW flights out of PHL that were cheaper than AT flights out of ABE. I just did a comparison for my April trip (4/1-4/7). I paid a little over 500 bucks for 2 people (DW and me), including priority boarding and seat selection. The same trip on SW (using business select to get the priority boarding) costs $1480! That's almost 3X the price!!!!!

I also checked for my July trip (6/30 - 7/7). If I use SW's "wanna get away" pricing it's 700 bucks. And at that price I don't get priority boarding or seat selection. I paid 500 bucks for AT with priority and seat.

And that doesn't include the gas, tolls, and parking costs (my nephew drops us off) of running down to philly. Not to mention that with ABE I can leave my house about hour and 15 minutes before the flight leaves. With philly I have to leave 2 hours earler.

I don't see any advantage to philly.

Why choose Business Select for Priority Boarding? You can purchase Early Bird Boarding for $10 per ticket. I have yet to use it, I check in at the 24 hour mark, and have never (knock on wood) had any problems finding seats together with at least one of my travel mates. On occasion, since EBCI, I have even still gotten A boarding passes. But even with B's, I haven't had any issues with seating.

For my purposes, I have always done better pricewise with SW. But we are all entitled to our own opinions..

 

[TaraPA]

Alert Alert!

CH 69 WFMZ is reporting that ABE will be making an announcement soon about a new airline coming.....

Fingers crossed it's non-stop to MCO! I don't even care what the carrier is!

I did get a reply back from one of the ABE execs saying "stay tuned, we are in negotiations right now with a new carrier."

 

[It'sWDW4me]

Alert Alert!

CH 69 WFMZ is reporting that ABE will be making an announcement soon about a new airline coming.....

Fingers crossed it's non-stop to MCO! I don't even care what the carrier is!

I did get a reply back from one of the ABE execs saying "stay tuned, we are in negotiations right now with a new carrier."

I heard that on the radio this morning, too. Any idea as to what time they'll make the announcement?

 

[Checkers]

Alert Alert!

CH 69 WFMZ is reporting that ABE will be making an announcement soon about a new airline coming.....

Fingers crossed it's non-stop to MCO! I don't even care what the carrier is!

I did get a reply back from one of the ABE execs saying "stay tuned, we are in negotiations right now with a new carrier."

My niece in Lancaster just emailed me that an announcement was going to be made today that direct flights to MCO from Harrisburg are being picked up by another carrier. No details as yet, stay tuned! I am sure it will be the same one for ABE.

 

[TaraPA]

I see nothing on the WFMZ or the LVIA website...but I will be watching all day!

I heard mention of Direct Air or Frontier as possible choices. I don't care at all, just so they can get me from ABE to MCO in 2.5 hours without a stop!

 

[Checkers]

There is a blurb on it on the WGAL (channel 8) out of Lancaster but no other details. I will be anxiously waiting as we have a trip scheduled for Oct. and were just getting resigned to the fact that we would either have to drive to Baltimore or fly USAir with a layover in Charlotte.

to us all!

 

[TaraPA]

ON the LVIA website it shows that Direct Air offers non-stop to Fort Myers, FL. Has that always been there? I dno't recall that Direct Air was even at ABE....I'm hoping that's not the big announcement!

 

[TaraPA]

HERE IT IS!!!


Frontier will start offering 2 flights per WEEK to MCO. Yuck, 2 flights per week - I guess it's better than nothing!

http://www.wfmz.com/news/news-regio...om-LVIA/-/132502/9143448/-/7322z/-/index.html

 

[It'sWDW4me]

I see nothing on the WFMZ or the LVIA website...but I will be watching all day!

I heard mention of Direct Air or Frontier as possible choices. I don't care at all, just so they can get me from ABE to MCO in 2.5 hours without a stop!

Direct Air is already on LVIA's list of carriers. They supposedly have direct flights to/from Ft Myers. But I checked into them for our upcoming trip and their fares were crazy expensive and VERY limited. I just looked them up again - there's an all-destination fare sale of $79 each way (could this be in preparation for new routes? ) but they have an extremely limited schedule showing up right now: only fly TO Ft Myers on Mondays and the last two Fridays in April and there's only one flight back to LVIA (Friday 4/27).

Their carry-on size is quite generous (22"x14"x9" - 45" overall) and their checked bag fees aren't too bad - first bag is $30 in advance, $35 at check-in.

That Ft Myers run COULD be just a foot-in-the-door to get the ABE-MCO runs. Hmmm, I'll continue to wait impatiently until the announcement.