Denver's Snow Delays Spooked Fliers

Travelers have been avoiding connections through Denver International Airport since the December snowstorms that temporarily paralyzed air travel, according to Frontier Airlines chief executive Jeff Potter.

"Until probably two to three weeks ago, we actually saw a decrease in bookings on the connect side of our business," Potter said Wednesday during a presentation at a JPMorgan Aviation and Transportation Conference in New York. "It appears that there was a 'book-away."'

Frontier lost $13.2 million in revenue in December as a result of the blizzards, but the carryover effect extended into January and February, Potter said.

Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas said the decrease in bookings has since dissipated.

"I think memories are short and winter being for the most part gone, I think people aren't paying as much attention to it," Hodas said.

He said storms on the East Coast and in the Midwest also showed passengers could run into bad weather far beyond Denver.

Separately, Potter said the company expects to boost international flights to more than 20 percent of its business by 2009, with Q400 turboprop flights making up 6.3 percent and regional-jet flights making up 8.4 percent. Frontier expects Southwest Airlines flights to overlap with about 17 percent of its business by then.

Also at the conference, Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said in a presentation that his airline is going through a transformation that will take several years as it faces more competition from other low-cost carriers. Unit operating costs at the airline have increased 25 percent over the last five years.

"We need revenues to improve so that we can overcome high fuel prices," Kelly said, noting that the airline industry saw a softening of demand in the first quarter.

"For 35 years, we had an elegant, keep-it-simple product ? but things will be different in the future," he said. "Nothing is easy for us, however, because we were uniquely constructed to offer what you've seen in the past."

United Airlines chief financial officer Jake Brace said at the conference the airline plans to reduce its annual costs by another $265 million this year.

Also, United told its employees it will hire up to 1,700 flight attendants this year.

The effort comes after United last year hired more than 1,400 flight attendants, including about 70 in Denver. Of 160,000 who applied online last year, fewer than 1 percent were selected.

This latest round of hiring covers jobs in Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., but not in Denver.

"But we continue to look at availability, and later in the year we might," said United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy.

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