Frontier Likes to Load Planes from the Ground and Outside. Is it in Store for Orlando?

With Frontier no longer wooing Spirit for a merger, the airline has launched an expansion at its home airport in Denver that will get rid of its jetways and, with a nod to a mostly bygone era, conduct its passenger boarding outside from the tarmac.

“The use of ground boarding will cut boarding and deplaning times in half by allowing customers access to aircraft from the front and rear,” said Barry Biffle, the carrier’s chief executive officer.

The nation’s 8th largest airline, Frontier flies to 73 destinations from Denver and 65 destinations from Orlando International, which is the airline’s second busiest airport.

In Denver, Frontier is expanding from nine gates that rely on jetways to 14 gates that send passengers to the ground level. Will the budget airline seek to convert to that boarding method at Orlando’s airport, known by its code of MCO and under pressure to provide airlines with more gates?

“While we do not have any immediate plans to pursue ground boarding at MCO, there are many operational advantages to it and, in general, we are interested in increasing the use of ground boarding at airports within our network,” said Jennifer de la Cruz, the airline’s spokesperson.

There’s precedent at Orlando’s airport for ground boarding. Delta Air Lines’ subsidiary, Comair, for a time the world’s largest regional airline, operated a big section of ground-level gates. Comair, which maintained a hub in Orlando, was in service until about 20 years ago.

But, say Orlando officials, there’s a matter of tropical weather, the child-heavy demographic of Orlando travelers and, simply, and the lack of wing room amid the airport’s particular layout.

Comair back in the day flew jets smaller than Frontier’s current aircraft of the Airbus 320 family.

While Orlando’s airport isn’t all that receptive to ground boarding, it is about to reshuffle its appropriation of coveted gates among airlines.

“We have an excellent relationship with Frontier,” said Orlando airport director Kevin Thibault. “They consistently ask us about additional gates.”

Frontier may get its wish. With the $3 billion Terminal C opening this month, its anchor airline will be JetBlue. That means the New York-based airline will vacate eight gates at the original A-B terminal complex.

“We are negotiating with other airlines as well,” said Thibault, adding that the airport constantly looks to balance passenger loads among terminals. “Clearly it will give us a chance to do a redistribution.”

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