Frontier Airlines will not resume its Durango to Denver route this summer, leaving United Airlines as the only carrier taking local passengers to Denver.
“While we’re disappointed in Frontier’s announcement of cancellation for this summer, we’re pleased to have recently secured a third American Airlines flight from Dallas that will provide more flight time choices for locals and visitors and increase flight market connecting options,” said Kip Turner, director of aviation for Durango-La Plata County Airport, in a news release.
The move by Frontier, which has laid off workers in Denver and canceled routes throughout its service area in recent months, comes at an awkward time. Some public officials are pushing to overhaul the airport’s terminal building at a cost of $80 million or more.
Turner said the Durango airport will offer 7 percent more seats this summer than last. That’s because of an additional American Airlines flight to Dallas and more capacity on US Airways’ route to Phoenix and United’s Denver flights.
Frontier most recently operated the Durango route in October. Frontier had planned flights to Durango only three days per week during summer, when the airport attracts heavy tourist traffic. The airline’s passenger load was significantly lower than that of United’s daily route to Denver.
Frontier Airlines did not immediately respond to a phone call and email message requesting comment after business hours Friday.
Some local officials have said Frontier’s low-cost model benefited other customers by keeping ticket prices low.
Mayor Sweetie Marbury said she hadn’t counted on Frontier since it reduced its schedule.
Marbury said she was unsure how Frontier’s cancellation would affect the airport debate.
“This will be up to the voters,” she said. “I’m not a supporter of a brand-new airport. It’s financially too expensive. Yes, we need to do some improvements, but I do not support building a new airport from the ground up.”
Turned said efforts continue to woo additional flights. Business leaders have long pined for direct flights to destinations such as Houston and Chicago.
“We regularly converse with all the airlines about air-service capacity,” Turner said. “We will include Frontier’s decision in these conversations as it could influence the capacity decisions of American, United and US Airways, possibly leading to more flights or larger aircraft from some or all of these carriers. We had very high flight load factors last summer which we feel justify an even larger capacity increase than our current 7 percent (projected growth) at Durango this summer, and we’re doing everything we can to acquire more flights and air seats.“
