Week after announcing discontinuing its Milwaukee and Kansas City route and hubs that it inherited with its acquisition of now-defunct Midwest Airlines, Frontier revealed on Monday that Delaware' New Castle County Airport, which is near Wilmington, the state's largest city, will be the airline's newest hub, making its first flights on July 1.
"Frontier will fly four weekly flights to its main hub of Denver and three flights a week to both Chicago Midway and Houston Hobby. To Orlando, Frontier will fly twice a week. On July 4, Frontier will add two weekly flights to Tampa. A number of connecting options will be available via Denver," reported USA Today.
"We want Frontier to be successful, and the way for Frontier to be successful is going to be for the people of Delaware and the surrounding area to take advantage," Gov. Jack Markell said at an event Tuesday welcoming the airline to Delaware. "This is an investment on Frontier's part, and they are going to be looking for support from us in the form of fare-paying passengers," according to The News Journal of Delaware.
This new service will make Frontier the only airline with regular service to and from New Castle County and with the airport being less than 30 miles south of Philadelphia International and about 75 miles northeast of Baltimore/Washington International, it could be a way for passengers to skip the stress and traffic, while saving some money. At least, that is what Daniel Shurz, Frontier's senior vice president, commercial, is hoping.
"Customers who fly Frontier from (Wilmington) can skip congested and expensive alternative hubs in the region and enjoy quick, convenient, low-fare travel to great destinations," Shurz says in Frontier's press release.
It appears that Frontier's business model is to key in on regional airports. According to USA Today, they have "made various attempts in recent years to establish secondary bases at a number of cities. Some have stuck (Orlando) while others have not (Colorado Springs). And the jury is still out on another --Trenton, N.J."
The strategy for going into Delaware and Trenton, many travel experts believe is due to the airports being "near big metro areas that have no direct competition but also are unlikely to attract new service from rivals such as United and Southwest."
However, it is good to note that Frontier will temporarily suspend all of its flights at Trenton for about two months this fall to accommodate a runway construction project there, but Frontier stated that "it plans to resume full service when the project is complete," according to USA Today.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
