Hometown airline will trim schedules by 17 percent

Denver-based Frontier Airlines is the latest carrier to announce plans for significant schedule reductions this fall. The company told employees last week that it plans to ground seven of its mainline Airbus jets by September, and to reduce system capacity by 17 percent. Some 1,000 employees are expected to lose their jobs as a result. Frontier may also give up one or more of its 22 gates at Denver International Airport. Most of the capacity reductions will come from reduced frequencies in Frontier’s markets, although the airline will reportedly stop flying from Denver to Hartford, Conn. and to Louisville, Ky., and will suspend service to Vancouver, Anchorage and Jackson Hole over the winter months. Frontier is already operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which it entered in April.

Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines continues to focus on Denver as its primary growth market, having increased its daily departures there by almost 50 percent so far this year. Southwest’s next round of expansion at Denver will come on August 4 when it adds new routes to Sacramento, Ft. Lauderdale and New Orleans. And just last week, Southwest announced plans for two more new Denver routes, starting November 2: Three daily roundtrips to Orange County, Calif., and two to Tulsa. Southwest will also increase frequencies on some Denver routes in November, boosting its Denver-Chicago Midway schedule from six flights a day to nine, Denver-Kansas City from four daily flights to six, and Denver-Phoenix from seven daily roundtrips to nine, for instance. While other airlines are shrinking dramatically this year—on domestic routes, at least – Southwest is projecting year-over-year capacity growth of four percent. Other new routes it plans to introduce in November include Ft. Lauderdale-Las Vegas, Ft. Lauderdale-Kansas City, Ft. Lauderdale-Albany, N.Y. and Ft. Myers-St. Louis.