Frontier Airline

The reason I post this story is not to say that Frontier will come here--they will not. This concept is similar to our idea two years ago to feed JetBlue's hub (JFK) with the Embraer with a couple flights per day. Instead we are discussing turboprops. As we have discussed many many times ORH will never get a multiple daily flights to business destinations like DC, Chicago, etc. Best we can ask for is multiple flights per day to closeby hub.


Frontier Airlines will focus more of its growth on Mexico, Canada and smaller U.S. cities rather than larger markets where it faces fierce competition from Southwest Airlines and other carriers, a company executive said. "The power we have over Southwest...is to generate incremental traffic where they’re not taking their passengers," Paul Tate, the company’s chief financial officer, said today at an airline conference in New York City. "They’re not going to fly to Vail or Aspen...so it’s important for us to take full advantage of those (kinds of) markets."

The company already has plans in place to bring on 10 turboprop planes that will serve cities within a 650-mile radius of Denver, possibly to such underserved destinations as Colorado Springs, Aspen and Jackson Hole, Wyo. It also is bolstering its regional fleet, adding eight net new aircraft. Frontier has come under increasing pressure in Denver this year with the emergence of United Airlines from bankruptcy and the arrival of low-cost giant Southwest.

Part of its strategy has been to diversify away from Denver, in part so it isn’t reliant on one market. The carrier has been expanding its Mexico service and adding flights that don’t involve flying through Denver. And it recently cemented a partnership that allows its customers to earn Frontier frequent flier miles on AirTran Airways flights. Tate said Frontier faces a tough competitive environment at home but is holding its own against Southwest and United.