Frontier Airlines cutting flights at CVG
- Frontier discontinuing flights to Fort Lauderdale
- Low-cost carrier reducing service to Las Vegas
Frontier Airlines plans to reduce flights to three cities from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport – the biggest reduction of low-cost service since discount carriers returned to CVG in 2013.
Frontier plans to discontinue daily nonstop flights to Fort Lauderdale and cut service in half to Las Vegas in October, an airline spokesman confirmed to The Enquirer on Monday.
Daily nonstop flights to Atlanta from CVG also are scheduled to be discontinued on Oct. 24. However, Frontier plans to bring the Atlanta flights back in 2016 as seasonal service. Atlanta flights were not originally announced to the public as seasonal.
The cuts do not necessarily mean Frontier is failing or plans more downsizing at CVG, but the service reduction could mark the end of the Denver-based airline’s growth here.
“Overall, we are pleased with CVG’s performance, and CVG could see some moderate growth in the future,” Frontier spokesman Jim Faulkner said.
Frontier’s cuts will come six months after it expanded flights to Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale and other cities and launched the service to Atlanta. This will be Frontier’s second round of cuts at CVG this year, after the airline discontinued all flights to the Philadelphia region in January.
The cuts come amid growth by Allegiant Air, which is Frontier’s main competitor at CVG. Allegiant announced last week it is planning to add more flights to Las Vegas and Fort Lauderdale.
Frontier and Allegiant each focus mostly on offering flights to U.S. vacation cities and are considered “ultra”-low-cost carriers – airlines that charge low base fares but charge a la carte for most amenities.
As high-fare CVG transitions from a Delta Air Lines hub to a multicarrier airport, Frontier and Allegiant have been jockeying for position in the market. Is Allegiant Air winning the battle? Maybe.
The airlines go head-to-head on flights to five cites – Las Vegas, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and Phoenix. Frontier currently offers daily nonstop flights to four of those cities. Meanwhile, Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air has a limited number of weekly flights to each city.
Frontier plans to end Fort Lauderdale flights a year after starting them. The airline will drop from two to one flight a day to Las Vegas.
“Fort Lauderdale didn’t perform like we had hoped so we are pulling that flight,” Faulkner said. “Las Vegas is doing well, so we’re staying in the CVG-(Las Vegas) market. We’ll use that aircraft in another leisure market where demand increases during the fall and winter.”
Frontier and Allegiant have been key to winning leisure fliers to CVG, which traditionally has lost local customers to cheaper nearby airports such as Dayton and Louisville.
Frontier launched at CVG in May 2013, becoming the airport’s first discount carrier in over a decade. The airline’s success on a daily flight to Denver paved the way for multiple expansions and also opened the door for Allegiant to come to town in early 2014.
Average fares remain high at CVG, but prices have been dropping. CVG is coming off a banner month for low-cost fliers. In June, 18.4 percent of all the passengers who went through CVG caught flights on either Frontier or Allegiant. The June number was the most low-cost airline fliers in one month in CVG’s history.
“We anticipate Frontier continuing its growth at CVG in 2016,” airport spokeswoman Melissa Wideman said. “Seasonal reductions to certain destinations are common during off-peak travel periods by both legacy and low-cost carriers.”
Wideman added: “Year over year, Frontier service levels at CVG remain very strong to some of our most popular destinations.”