Frontier announces Durango-Las Vegas flights

June 28--FARMINGTON -- Frontier Airlines on Wednesday announced it will begin nonstop flights from Durango, Colo. to Las Vegas, going head to head with Great Lakes Airlines' service from Farmington to Sin City.

Service will begin Oct. 4 with two flights per week. The flights will be Thursday and Sunday.

Frontier is advertising introductory fares starting at $49 each way to lure travelers to the new route.

The Frontier flights on 138-seat Airbus A319 aircraft will have much larger capacity than Great Lakes' flights to Las Vegas, which use 19-seat Beech 1900 aircraft.

"It'll probably be good for consumers," said Todd Gressick, airport manager at Four Corners Regional Airport. "It'll be more competition, so I bet it'll result in lower prices."

Great Lakes' route to Las Vegas is "one of their better-performing flights as far as load counts," Gressick said.

Great Lakes did not return a message seeking comment Wednesday. Frontier also did not return a message seeking further information.

Durango's airport saw a record 175,000 passengers in 2011, a 5.7 percent increase from the previous year. The airport has embarked on a number of improvements to its passenger lounge, parking lots and runways.

Frontier, based in Denver, is responsible for about 16 percent of the passengers leaving from Durango.

The route offers a chance for Las Vegas residents to visit Durango, in addition to giving Durango residents an opportunity to get out of town, said Ron Dent, director of

aviation at Durango-La Plata County Airport.

"This new service offers wonderful travel opportunities to both residents of the Four Corners and the Las Vegas communities as both areas are important vacation destinations," Dent said in a news release.

The flight will also open up more destinations for local residents, said Susan Lander, interim executive director at the Durango Area Tourism Office.

"We really need another place, another connecting point to open up the West," she said. "Vegas is a big airport. You can make a lot of connections to the West Coast."

The new flight will leave Las Vegas at 5:59 p.m. Thursday and Sunday, and arrive at 8:14 p.m. The return flight departs Durango at 8:54 p.m., arriving in Las Vegas at 9:09 p.m.

The schedule is perfect for a long weekend trip, Lander said.

Frontier is offering tickets for flights from Oct. 4, 2012 through Jan. 4, 2013.

"As Colorado's only hometown airline, we continue to look for ways to provide the community with new, low-fare service to top travel destinations," said Daniel Shurz, a Frontier senior vice president.

Copyright 2012 - The Daily Times, Farmington, N.M.