Frontier Adds Five New Routes and Three New Cities

Republic Airways Holdings subsidiary, Frontier Airlines, has announced plans to expand its activities from Denver and Kansas City, adding five more cities to its network. From its main base at Denver, it will launch a four-times weekly Airbus A319 link to Knoxville, Tennessee from June 6, a daily Embraer 190 connection to Provo, Utah from June 20 and a daily E190 service to Sioux Falls, South Dakota from July 4. At Kansas City it will introduce a 13-times weekly link to Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota from June 6, operated by E170 or E190 regional jets, and a five-times weekly E190 link to San Antonio from June 7.

“These new markets really highlight our desire to give our guests affordable and convenient travel to more destinations than ever before,” said Daniel Shurz, Vice President of Strategy and Planning, Frontier Airlines.

Source: Flightbase (June 14-20, 2011)

Frontier will compete directly with United Airlines on two of the routes from Denver and with Delta Air Lines between Kansas City and Minneapolis/St Paul, the latter being a real trunk route for the carrier, served more than 40 times a week during the summer. In 2010, approximately 38,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route and Frontier will hope competitive fares will help stimulate the market as well as attracting price-sensitive travellers from its rival. The average fare charged by Delta during 2010 was $239 each way, although Southwest Airlines was able to secure a 23 per cent share of the market with a one-stop strategy via Chicago Midway, with average fares between $149 and $161.

Alongside these new routes, Frontier will double frequencies between Denver and Des Moines, Iowa; and Madison, Wisconsin; and increase service between Denver and Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Seattle/Tacoma, Washington and Spokane, Washington to meet high demand during the peak travel season. In addition, it will also be resuming popular summer services to several destinations from Denver and Milwaukee including non-stop flights between Denver and Anchorage, Alaska; Fairbanks, Alaska and Green Bay, Wisconsin.

This expansion follows last month’s announcement that Frontier will begin services to Ironwood, Michigan; Manistee, Michigan; and Rhinelander, Wisconsin from its Milwaukee hub beginning April 18, 2011. These routes will be operated by Frontier’s 37-seat Embraer ERJ-135 aircraft.