Bright spot - Frontier's March Results

[F9 Driver]

Finally some good news from this industry

Press ReleaseSource: Frontier Airlines Holdings, Inc. Frontier Airlines Reports Preliminary Traffic for March 2008

Friday April 4, 9:00 am ET
Airline Achieves Record Load Factor for March
DENVER, April 4, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Frontier Airlines Holdings, Inc. today announced preliminary traffic results for March 2008 for both Frontier's mainline operation as well as its wholly owned subsidiary, Lynx Aviation. Lynx Aviation commenced revenue service in December 2007. As such, only the current month, fiscal year ended and three months ended March 31, 2008 for the current year are presented for Lynx Aviation in the text and table below.

Mainline Results
Mainline revenue passenger miles increased 14.7 percent to 942,369,000 for March 2008 from the same period last year. Mainline available seat miles increased 4.5 percent to 1,117,237,000 for March 2008 from the same period last year. This resulted in a record mainline load factor for March 2008 of 84.4 percent, an increase of 7.6 points from March 2007, when the airline reported a mainline load factor of 76.8 percent. The airline carried 953,078 mainline passengers during March 2008, a 10.1 percent increase from March 2007. The airline reported mainline passenger yield of 11.81 cents for the month of March 2008, an increase of 0.7 percent from the same period last year. Its mainline passenger revenue per available seat mile was 9.96 cents, up .95 or 10.5 percent from March 2007.

"The results posted for the month of March are reflective of the progressive changes we are making in realigning our network to drive traffic and revenue improvements," said Sean Menke, President and CEO. "Our mainline unit revenue performance for March, as well as the quarter, is the best we have had in over five years. I am extremely proud of the efforts put forth by the Frontier team in establishing record traffic, revenue and load factor for the month."

Lynx Aviation Results
For March 2008, Lynx Aviation reported revenue passenger miles of 38,332,000 and available seat miles of 54,082,000. This resulted in a load factor for March 2008 of 70.9 percent. Lynx Aviation carried 86,594 passengers during March 2008, generating passenger yield of 19.38 cents. Lynx Aviation passenger revenue per available seat mile was 13.74 cents and its average length of haul was 443 miles for March 2008.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080404/laf021.html?.v=101

 

[ultrarunner]

Ok, loads went up, yields when up a touch...BUT...did they make any money?

The four paragraphs above are pretty much meaningless.

I know airline management just LOVES to rave about a good week or a good month. It's a shame very few folks in this biz have a long-term plan.

 

[Colonel Savage]

Ok, loads went up, yields when up a touch...BUT...did they make any money?

Should know in a few weeks...

 

[Hair-on-Fire]

If you look at Frontier's results for the quarter ending December 31, 2007 they report a CASM of 10.0 cents per ASM for the mainline operation.

http://flyfrontier.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=1448

In the release above, they report a March RASM of 9.96. The CASM for last quarter was before the big fuel run-up, so I don't see how they possibly made any money. Unfortunally, I don't think hardly anyone is going to be reporting a profit for the first three months of 2008. (except SWA)

Good luck to us all

 

[taxi1wire]

??????????

Good God, this is good news? Kinda like finding a nice cozy warm spot on the titanic at 2am the morning of 15 april 1912.
I'm all for good news, but uh...


Best of luck to us all,

 

[ultrarunner]

Well, it's likely just some posturing before the earnings release in an attempt to keep the stock above 2 bucks or so.

Wall street won't be hesitant at all to beat the living crapola outta this stock if they don't make their quarterly numbers, which they likely will not.

They could be flirting with getting de-listed.

 

[D-Bo]

Everything is good news at Frontier. The culture is to even turn bad news into good news somehow. That's how many define a good attitude there. I wish F9 luck but the koolaid drinking is unbearable. Very good folks at F9 but many, not all, are gullible. Don't mean that to be a swipe at the good folks at F9. Just my observation.

 

[get2flyin]

Everything is good news at Frontier. The culture is to even turn bad news into good news somehow. That's how many define a good attitude there. I wish F9 luck but the koolaid drinking is unbearable. Very good folks at F9 but many, not all, are gullible. Don't mean that to be a swipe at the good folks at F9. Just my observation.

Ah, a good attitude and the power of positive thinking. Reminds me of the old days at America West. I think most West guys would gladly unhitch the wagon to have a little of that back.

Oh, and being positive doesn't mean you're gullible. I just means you're not a miserable SOB to be around.

Good luck to you guys!

 

[Cardinal]

The catch is that the living crap gets beat out of the stock no matter what happens. Every news item since mid 2003 has had a negative effect on the share price. UA could cut a press release tomorrow announcing the closure of the DEN hub, and the analysts would downgrade F9, asking "could they be the next casualty?"

We've got more aircraft equity than market cap, for chrissakes. Worstcase, we shutdown tomorrow, in which case it would be good for the shareholders, so whats to fear? This year will hold some tremendous challenges, for certain, but Frontier is increasingly prepared to meet them. Yet the conventional wisdom has already prounced us DOA, despite the fact that we've competed amazingly well against a couple of worthy foes.

- Optimistic in DEN.

 

[Andy]

In the release above, they report a March RASM of 9.96.

That's PRASM. Looking at their previous financials, you have to add a bit more than half a cent per ASM to get their RASM.
Either way, it looks tight. It'll be all about cash on hand. I hope that they get those 4 planes sold shortly; their cash on hand's anemic.