Frontier Airlines Looks to Canada for Possible Service Expansion

DENVER (AP) - First came touchdown in the warm resort cities of Mexico. Now Frontier Airlines is looking north to snowy Canada.

The low-cost discount carrier is researching the possibility of expanding service to Canada, although no decisions have been made on destinations or a timetable, according to Chief Financial Officer Paul Tate.

"We're interested in continuing to grow our Denver presence and clearly a natural link or extension would be Canadian service," Tate said in an interview.

Analysts said Canada would be a good, logical move for Frontier. "You want to build your hub so you want as many spokes from good cities as you can. It gives you more flow over your system," said airline analyst Raymond Neidl of Calyon Securities Inc.

The look at Canada comes three years after Frontier started service in Mexico, a schedule that it will expand to seven cities this weekend with flights starting to Cozumel and Acapulco.

Aviation analyst Mike Boyd of The Boyd Group speculated that Frontier would look at Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver. "Canada is a good generator of traffic to Mexico," he said. "Frontier could interconnect a lot of people."

In January, Southwest Airlines Co. plans to start nonstop service to three cities from Denver International Airport. Frontier also faces competition in Denver from United Airlines which is expecting to emerge from bankruptcy next year.

Frontier serves 48 destinations in 28 states and five cities in Mexico from its Denver hub.

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