Some of the highlights I've picked up so far (Lots more in the presentation and webcast, others may cue into things I have missed so far):
* A319s - G4 has submitted manuals, begun crew training,
* A319 proving runs will be out of AZA in February (spotter alert)
* A319s are currently expected to begin scheduled service by summer 2013
* Net fleet growth of only 1 aircraft in 2013 as MDs are replaced by A319s
* Most 2013 ASM growth of 17.5% is planned as Gauge increases (6%) and Hawaii (10.6%).
* New route ASM growth planned at 3.6% in 2013 but offset by route closures.
* Hawaii - still learning market's booking patterns and how to maximize profits.
* FAT-HNL startup considered the most successful route start in company history.
* Mexico - G4 plans to enter Mexico in late 2013 or early 2014. Current plans include flights from up to 10 Mexican cities to both LAS and SFB.
* Also confirmed they are looking at CUN as a destination city from the US. (side note: I still want to see SJD from the west)
* Growth in catchment areas - Seeing customers driving further to board flights. Nice heat map of credit card zip codes on slide 15 showing SCK catchment area growing since 2009 to include more of the Sacramento area, the East Bay, parts of the North Bay, plus south to Merced.
* Ticket sales - currently have small experiment underway listing flights on kayak.com. That would be the first time they used something other than their own website or call center.
* A co-branded credit card and a travel club are scheduled to start in Q2 2013
* Sales of other airline's flights and standalone hotel sales are planned for the website for Q3 2013.
* Caesars contract ends in January. The MD87 will shift to March Madness contracts and other charter in 1H 2013 then be retired.
* Possibility of DOD charters using the 757s
[Edited 2012-11-16 14:09:14]
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." - Mark Twain
AVLAirlineFreq From United States of America, joined Jun 2008, 787 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (6 months 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 615 times:
Thanks for sharing. Very interesting.
Quoting FATFlyer (Thread starter): Also confirmed they are looking at CUN as a destination city from the US. (side note: I still want to see SJD from the west)
I had assumed that was coming at some point. My question is, how many current G4 airports have FIS capability?
EDIT: Noticed in the presentation they are only looking at their destination markets to CUN at this point.
dlramp4life From United States of America, joined Jun 2011, 703 posts, RR: 1 Reply 2, posted (6 months 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 615 times:
Thank you for posting this FATflyer!
Quoting FATFlyer (Thread starter): * Caesars contract ends in January. The MD87 will shift to March Madness contracts and other charter in 1H 2013 then be retired.
FATFlyer From United States of America, joined May 2001, 5667 posts, RR: 17 Reply 3, posted (6 months 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 615 times:
Quoting AVLAirlineFreq (Reply 1): I had assumed that was coming at some point. My question is, how many current G4 airports have FIS capability?
EDIT: Noticed in the presentation they are only looking at their destination markets to CUN at this point.
They have been talking airport management at some larger spokes about FIS services. Of course funding, timelines, etc all play into which will decide to build a FIS (beyond the existing small cities with FIS).
The actual statement on slide 64 (titled International) is "Destination markets – Cancun" but I have not listened to that part of the webcast yet to know if that meant Destination markets TO Cancun or NEW INTERNATIONAL Destination Markets - Cancun. I was hesitant to try to interpret the meaning without listening to that part of the webcast.
[Edited 2012-11-16 14:52:31]
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." - Mark Twain
OAK and SFB have FIS; in fact, SFB sees a lot of charters to/from Europe.
Quoting FATFlyer (Thread starter): * A co-branded credit card and a travel club are scheduled to start in Q2 2013
I could see the travel club akin to NK's $9 Fare Club.
Not sure who will issue the cobranded credit card: American Express issues DL and B6's, Citi issues AA's, Chase issues UA, WN, and FL's, Bank of America issues AS and NK's, and Barclaycard issues US and VX's. Capital One, perhaps? Wouldn't be surprised to see G4's debit card discount extended to those using the cobranded credit card.
FWAERJ From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 3172 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (6 months 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 615 times:
Quoting dlramp4life (Reply 2):
Quoting FATFlyer (Thread starter):
* Caesars contract ends in January. The MD87 will shift to March Madness contracts and other charter in 1H 2013 then be retired.
And that will go to??? SY?
Republic/F9.
Quoting FATFlyer (Reply 3): They have been talking airport management at some larger spokes about FIS services.
FWA put an FIS in their 2012 master plan that should be implemented in the next five years. They say it's for international diversions, but I suspect that G4 had a strong say in the idea of an FIS at FWA for CUN and the like.
CIDFlyer From United States of America, joined Apr 2005, 1991 posts, RR: 3 Reply 7, posted (6 months 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 615 times:
CUN could really be a big money maker for them...so many people go there. Should be interesting! I would like to also see where else they could go from PGD.
FATFlyer From United States of America, joined May 2001, 5667 posts, RR: 17 Reply 8, posted (6 months 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 617 times:
OK, I fast forwarded (its a 4 hour webcast) to find the international section in the webcast.
Its at about the 3:06:00 mark.
It sounds like they have not decided which direction (north or south) will start first.
Adding flights from Mexico to LAS and SFB is based on what they have been seeing in the bookings at stations like McAllen and Laredo. Sounds like they see enough border crossing traffic to want to go south. It will be a few markets at first ramping up into 2015 if the initial routes work well.
Going south to Mexico they do say it would be smaller cities to CUN. The issue is which ones have FIS or will add it.
But again the question is will they focus on northbound or southbound traffic first in 2013/2014.
edit - I just listened a little further. They say currently about 10 to 15 of their smaller cities have FIS.
They also say they will experiment with stopping on the return at an airport to clear passengers thru customs. But until they try it that way they do not know how customers will react to the stop on the return along with the cost impact.
[Edited 2012-11-16 15:30:04]
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." - Mark Twain
FATFlyer From United States of America, joined May 2001, 5667 posts, RR: 17 Reply 9, posted (6 months 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 617 times:
Another tidbit.
@3:20:50 - Absolutely no interest in offering connections to Mexico or anywhere else. Technically it could be done but they have no interest in adding the complexity or cost of connecting passengers. They are OK with selling 2 different tickets and letting a passenger self-connect. But don't care that other airlines choose to offer connecting fares, they have their business model and feel profits shows it works for G4.
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." - Mark Twain
FWAERJ From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 3172 posts, RR: 1 Reply 10, posted (6 months 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 615 times:
Quoting CIDFlyer (Reply 7): I would like to also see where else they could go from PGD.
TOL and RFD seem like naturals for G4 from PGD, as they were some of Direct Air's top cities. I'm surprised that G4 hasn't pounced on those two cities with the public charter deal to serve PGD-RFD/TOL falling through.
That said, PGD is expanding their terminal right now, and I could see them adding another plane or two at PGD in the near future.
yvphx From United States of America, joined Jul 2009, 227 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (6 months 5 days 20 hours ago) and read 614 times:
AZA/IWA-CUN please!? The current pricing on US as a non stop from PHX-CUN is around $600 r/t. That needs to come down. The wife and I want to go again, but not at those prices. We flew there 4 years ago and it was around $300 r/t. That's my 2 cents. Other than that, I've flown G4 a couple times, and it seemed to be plagued with Maintenance issues. Hopefully the A319 will reduce those and offer more on-time flights.
FlyPeoria From United States of America, joined Oct 2005, 377 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (6 months 5 days 9 hours ago) and read 614 times:
Quoting FWAERJ (Reply 10): TOL and RFD seem like naturals for G4 from PGD, as they were some of Direct Air's top cities. I'm surprised that G4 hasn't pounced on those two cities with the public charter deal to serve PGD-RFD/TOL falling through.
FWAERJ From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 3172 posts, RR: 1 Reply 14, posted (6 months 4 days 15 hours ago) and read 614 times:
Quoting FlyPeoria (Reply 13): Both MLI and PIA are planning FIS facilities.
And as I mentioned earlier, FWA is too.
I was very surprised that SBN didn't add an FIS to their brand-new concourse last year. IIRC, it was part of the initial plans for the new SBN concourse, and G4 was very interested in it for international service. I wonder why SBN dropped the idea in midstream?
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