Frontier Gate Solution At Dia

[C54Capt]

The Denver Post had an article yesterday saying basically that Frontier was putting the $77 million dollar Concourse-A expansion project on hold until the industry shakes out a little bit. Potter referenced the fact that three DIA carriers were in bankruptcy (United, USAir, ATA) and that many existing gates may become available if capacity is reduced by any of these carriers. Obviously the F9ers would rather have the United A Gates, but UAL is intent on tying up those gates to force F9 into a less desirable solution. What will be the final look at DIA?

 

[markkus757]

As of right now, Airtran and Southwest are going to fight over assets of ATA's in the midwest and east coast. No one is talking about getting ATA's gates at DEN. It would be possible that if Southwest wins the bidding war over Airtran for assets that they want, I doubt Southwest would want anything to do with Denver unless something dramatically changes with United. I know that there was an "agreement" in place between Airtran and ATA, but the goal of the bankruptcy judge is to get the most money for the creditors. The $89 million bid by Airtran for Midway assets could very well be out bid to include some 738's by Southwest. I think it's very smart by Frontier to not go rushing into the situation since there is a lot of chaos that could turn their investment into wasted money.

 

[jimntx]

I agree that Frontier is smart to adopt a wait-and-see attitude. For sure, the bidding war over ATA assets will probably not include DEN. WN has never shown any interest in DIA because of the high landing fees (though I think Herb does regret pulling out of COS years ago).

If U or ATA fails completely, gates are available. Don't rule out a cutback by UAL at some point to preserve cash. Holding on to expensive gates and landing rights out of spite is not an exercise in fiscal irresponsibility that a BK judge would want to see.