Frontier Airlines Returning to Fort Lauderdale with New Flights to the Northeast

The surprise return of discount carrier Frontier Airlines to Fort Lauderdale will mean new flights to the Northeast and the likelihood of lower fares for consumers.

The Denver-based airline announced Tuesday it intends to resume service to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, which it vacated in early 2020. Starting in mid-February, the airline will be serving all three of South Florida’s international airports as the region increasingly re-emerges as a preferred tourist and relocation destination for travelers from the north.

“We welcome Frontier’s decision to resume flying from FLL and we wish the airline success with its new roster of routes,” said Mark Gale, CEO/Director of Aviation of the Broward County Aviation Department. “Frontier’s return will provide the traveling public with additional nonstop flight options from Fort Lauderdale.”

Third time the charm?

The resumption of flights will be Frontier’s third stint at the airport, said department spokeswoman Arlene Satchell. After leaving in late 2017, Frontier returned in November 2018 and left again in April 2020.

Frontier had, at the time, cited greater opportunities to draw domestic and international passengers via Miami International Airport.

“We’ve seen success in the Miami market,” said Daniel Shurz, senior vice president commercial, for Frontier. “But we’ve also seen the competitive dynamics change quite significantly in the last 18 months. We’ve seen Spirit, JetBlue and Southwest all start service at Miami International, and in the process there has been a reduction in relative capacity here in Fort Lauderdale,” he said. “And, when we have been looking in the past few months, we have seen Florida’s demand recover to broadly speaking pre-pandemic levels — we probably had a gap in our network by not flying to this airport.”

The move amounts to a competitive faceoff against rival discounter Spirit Airlines of Miramar, which operates the most flights at Fort Lauderdale.

It also comes after Spirit entered Miami with a schedule of 30 routes. Spirit is on the verge of becoming the second-largest carrier at Miami after American Airlines, which is the predominant carrier there.

New flights by state, city, frequency and start date

Limited introductory fares range from $19 to Orlando to $59 to Portland, Maine.

Tickets for these fares must be purchased by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time, Dec. 6, the company said in a statement, They are valid for nonstop travel, on select days of the week, Feb. 17, 2022 through April 14, 2022. Seven-day advance purchase applies. Round-trip purchases are not required.

Florida:

Orlando (daily), starts Feb. 17

New York:

Albany (three times weekly), starts Feb, 18.

Buffalo (daily), starts Feb. 17

Islip (daily), starts Feb. 17

Newburgh / Stewart International Airport - (three times weekly), starts Feb. 17

Rochester (three times weekly), starts Feb. 18

New Jersey

Trenton (daily), starts Feb. 17

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia (daily), starts Feb. 17

Rhode Island

Providence (daily), starts, Feb. 17

Maine

Portland (once a week), starts Feb. 19

Wisconsin

Green Bay (once a week), starts Feb. 19

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