Frontier Airlines returns to OKC, brings new destinations

Frontier Airlines announced Tuesday that it will begin offering service to 21 new cities from Denver International Airport.

The schedule increase includes the expansion of winter service to warm weather destinations, particularly Tampa, Miami, Orlando and Fort Myers, plus Cancun in Mexico. The route also is served by Delta.

In announcing the expansion, Frontier CEO Barry Biffle said a fortified Denver network would help Frontier take advantage of its “natural share of connecting passengers”.

“Our residents will have even more flight options to key US markets, and our local tourism industry will receive an infusion of thousands of additional passengers”, added Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez.

The route expansion also will extend to Mineta San Jose International Airport, which will connect Frontier flights with airports in Denver and Las Vegas. At 106 airlines, MIA is serviced by more carriers than any airport in the country.

One customer explained on Facebook how a route she had booked a year ago was cancelled three days prior to the airline’s announcement of its new route expansion, while another complained about rising prices. For example, Frontier’s new routes will make it the airline with the second most destinations from cities like Orlando, behind Southwest.

Frontier Airlines will offer its first flights in and out of Jacksonville International Airport next spring, the company announced. Some one-way fares were priced as low as $39, though none from Phoenix were eligible for the deal.

The expanded service includes five cities that no other airlines now fly to from MIA and brings Frontier’s total network at MIA to 15 cities. Fares – which averaged $184 one way during the fourth quarter of 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation – are likely to decrease once the Frontier service starts. Currently, Frontier has flights in 81 cities, with Islip becoming the 82nd.

Non-stop flights to Buffalo, Cancun, Cedar Rapids, Grand Rapids, Knoxville and Oklahoma City are now on sale and nonstop trips to San Antonio and Tulsa will be available for spring travel.

Frontier Airlines previously announced it would begin service to Las Vegas on August 14. It launched operations at MIA in December 2014. Frontier will offer 18 flights from Tampa by the end of the year.