UNITED (TED) To TEST DIGIPLAYER!?!?!
(repost?)
United discount carrier takes off
Named Ted, airline hopes new strategy is a money-maker
By Catherine Tsai, Associated Press
DENVER -- Ted has taken off.
United Airlines' discount carrier took its first flight from Las Vegas to Denver before dawn Thursday, launching a key component of United's strategy to emerge from bankruptcy this summer.
United parent UAL Corp. hopes Ted will be competitive with low-cost carriers that are rapidly snatching customers from big airlines. The new airline is based in Denver, home to discount carrier Frontier Airlines.
Ted took off on its first flight from San Francisco International Airport to Las Vegas at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday. A return flight from Las Vegas landed at SFO at 9:30 p.m. Initially, Ted will have just that flight everyday from SFO.
"The airline is going very slowly, and doesn't want to expand too quickly," said Mike McCarron, spokesman for SFO. "We're very pleased. The flight left six minutes early."
McCarron said that additional Ted flights from SFO to Phoenix and Denver will be added over the next two months by the airline, targeting leisure passengers.
Ted has not affected advance bookings for Frontier, whose executives handed out treats Thursday, spokesman Joe Hodas said.
United, the nation's No. 2 airline, has pitched Ted as laid-back fun, with free overhead programming -- Tedevision -- that includes music videos and comedies, and free music on Tedtunes. Executives said they will also test handheld entertainment units customers can rent.
Delta Air Lines launched a similar operation last year, Song, on East Coast routes to try to emulate the success of JetBlue Airways.
Analysts have been skeptical of Ted, citing the failures of low-fare ventures like United Shuttle and the fact that neither United nor Delta has been able to negotiate lower wages on their new airlines.
"This isn't a new airline," aviation consultant Mike Boyd said. "It has the same costs as United and the same fares as it did yesterday."
Executives said Ted differs from other low-fare carriers because it is linked to United's frequent-flier program. It also includes a 66-seat section with 4 extra inches of leg room.
The Ted fleet will expand to up to 45 Airbus A320 aircraft by year's end. Each A320 will have 156 seats.
Sean Donohue, United vice president of Ted, said early bookings are filling 90 percent of the airline's seats. Frontier Airlines recently reported a record quarterly load factor of about 77 percent.
Routes include Los Angeles to Las Vegas and Denver to Las Vegas, Phoenix, New Orleans and Reno, Nev. Ted -- as in UniTED -- is expected to have 106 daily flights by early April.
United flight attendants, accusing the airline of reducing retirement benefits, organized rallies to coincide with the launch of Ted. The union says United is reneging on an agreement to give more benefits to flight attendants who retired before July 1, even as it
