Frontier Airlines, which announced last fall it would suspend operations out of Lafayette until the spring, has suspended all operations indefinitely, company officials announced this morning.
The Denver-based low-cost airline, which announced in late 2018 it would offer flights out of Lafayette, said demand out of Lafayette Regional Airport was “insufficient to continue,” company officials said in the announcement.
Frontier had 40,682 passengers in Lafayette in 2019 and provided direct flights to Orlando, Florida and Denver.
“Unfortunately, there was not enough demand for our product to warrant the investment of aircraft time,” a Frontier official said in an email to LFT director Steve Picou. “We will continue to monitor opportunities going forward, so please feel free to keep us updated with information that could help justify future service.”
Frontier shifted its seasonal flight offerings in August when it suspended its direct flights to Orlando Aug. 10 in favor of direct flights to Denver. The flights were scheduled on Mondays and Fridays.
Frontier announced in July 2018 low-fare flights to those two cities at prices starting at $39 one way. The move followed United Airlines' attempt to provide service between Lafayette and Denver that began in August 2014 and ended 11 months later in favor of bulking up its seat offerings between Lafayette and Houston.
“We appreciate the service Frontier provided,” says Picou. “While it is disappointing to hear of this decision, it is not uncommon in the airline industry. It is a very dynamic model, and airlines do what makes the best business sense for them. We will continue to explore new opportunities with other airlines and seek more direct destinations on existing airlines.”
The low demand for Frontier flights isn't an indication of activity at the airport, which has been the opposite. The airport reported the highest amount of arriving and departing passengers for the month of December last month, pushing the total of enplanements and deplanements to set records for traffic.
The airport had 21,858 enplanements last month and 21,343 deplanements in December, the first time since 2014 that both categories topped the 20,000 mark, airport data shows.
Total enplanements for 2019 was 267,100 with total deplanements at 260,360 — both breaking the previous records set in 2014.
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