Frontier to announce additions to Colorado Springs schedule
May 18--Frontier Airlines plans to announce "exciting new additions" to its Colorado Springs schedule during a press conference at 9:15 a.m. today at the Colorado Springs Airport just as it kicks off nonstop service to four cities.
The Denver-based carrier begins service today to Phoenix on a daily basis, to Los Angeles six days a week and to Seattle four days a week; it will begin service Sunday to Portland three days a week. Both the Portland and Seattle flights are seasonal, with the Portland service scheduled to end in September and Seattle in November.
Frontier began serving Colorado Springs in 2008 and also operates four flights a day to its Denver hub. The airline also had sought takeoff and landing slots at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport with continuing service from the Springs to San Diego, but the U.S. Transportation Department turned down Frontier's request on Monday, awarding the slots to four other airlines.
Frontier is using Colorado Springs as a test market for "focus cities," or tiny hubs where no airline operates a hub or dominates the market, in hopes of attracting passengers by offering nonstop flights to popular destinations on full-size jets.
Daniel Shurz, Frontier's senior vice president of commercial, said last month that the airline was studying adding Chicago's Midway Airport, Dallas-Fort Worth and Orlando, Fla., to its Colorado Springs schedule if response was strong to the first four cities. Another company official said earlier this month that bookings on the new flights were "very good."
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