Frontier Strikes a Chord in Memphis

Second, the Denver-Memphis flight will continue on to Orlando, giving Denver passengers a second option to reach the popular destination, since an existing flight is often full.

Meanwhile, the flights between Memphis and Las Vegas will be redeye flights, stretching out the day for Frontier's aircraft. The Las Vegas-Memphis flight will depart at 11:45 p.m and arrive at 5:05 a.m. Happ notes that Las Vegas is among the best places to fill a redeye flight for.

"We wanted to mix a hub flight [Denver-Memphis] with some other destinations that are high profile," Happ says. "It's easy to get jazzed up about Orlando and Las Vegas." He adds that Frontier has no plans to build Memphis into "a focus city or minihub or anything like that."

Whatever Frontier's intentions, the reactions were swift. AirTran's move was part of a "planned Orlando expansion," says Kevin Healy, vice president of planning. He says AirTran also added an Orlando-Kansas City flight and a second daily flight between Orlando and Milwaukee, the hub for Midwest Airlines(MEH Quote), an airline AirTran is seeking to acquire. "We are up to 27 nonstop markets from Orlando," he says.

Meanwhile, Northwest said it added its new flights "in response to customer demand." From Memphis, Northwest offers 222 daily departures to 87 destinations. Frontier has to be careful, says aviation consultant Mike Boyd. In Memphis, he says, "They have a gunboat and they're taking on the battleship Missouri."