Frontier Airlines Announces A Massive Increase In Service

Frontier Airlines, an ultra-low cost carrier based in Denver, has announced a pretty massive expansion of their route network.  They’re mostly secondary cities, but there are some pretty sizable cities coming online.  And, the cities announced definitely add to their network in a significant way.

Even though Frontier is a bare bones carrier, the prices they charge can represent a pretty incredible value.  I flew them last year and saved $400 on a one-way flight.  The experience really wasn’t that bad.

Ben Mutzabaugh from USA Today covers the expansion.  Thanks to Stefan A. for sending it my way.  Here are the 21 cities that will now see service from their Denver hub:

• Albuquerque
• Boise
• Buffalo
• Calgary (their only Canada route)
• Charleston, SC
• El Paso, TX
• Fargo, ND
• Fresno
• Grand Rapids, MI
• Jackson Hole, WY
• Jacksonville, FL
• Little Rock
• Louisville
• Oklahoma City
• Ontario, CA
• Palm Springs, CA
• Pensacola, FL
• Reno, NV
• San Jose, CA
• Spokane
• Tulsa

Focus Cities?

Ben notes that Frontier is adding between 6 and 12 routes each to a handful of cities:

Elsewhere, Frontier is adding dozens of routes between cities it already serves. Among destinations getting a significant bump-up in new service are Austin, Cincinnati, Long Island/Islip, N.Y., Miami, Orlando, Providence, San Antonio and Tampa. Each of those cities is slated to get anywhere from six to 12 new routes in Frontier’s latest expansion.

That’s a bit surprising to me.  Frontier appears to be taking a page from Southwest’s playbook on the point-to-point stuff, but that definitely complicates their operation.  It’s a fleet of Airbus planes, so that makes it a bit easier.  But, they do have a handful of variants which could make maintenance more complicated on point-to-point routes.

There’s a pretty extensive list of announced routes at the bottom of the USA Today article if you want all the details.

The Final Two Pennies

This is a pretty sizable expansion of the Frontier network.  I’ll be interested to see if they can digest this without having significant teething issues.  They’ve had problems before when bad weather has struck in Denver.  That’s definitely something they’ll need to improve if they want customers to continue filling their planes.

In the meantime, there are two reasons to subscribe to Frontier’s mailing list.  The big 3 carriers do a pretty decent job matching their fares.  And, as I mentioned earlier, you’re not going to die if you take advantage of one of their cheap fares for one of your next trips.

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