Frontier Airlines is adding two new destinations to its system, including a return to its old stomping grounds and increasing service at an airport where Spirit Airlines previously dominated.
On Tuesday, Frontier announced it would be adding new service to Boise, Idaho, and restoring service to Oakland, California, with regular flights to Las Vegas.
The new routes will launch this summer, with four weekly flights between Boise International Airport and Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas beginning Sept. 10.
Frontier will also be restoring a previous service at the Oakland San Francisco Bay Area Airport, with 11 weekly flights to Las Vegas with service beginning on Aug. 20.
Frontier will offer introductory rates on both routes starting at $49 on select days, which are available for purchase through June 16.
“We are delighted to announce these new routes and our return to OAK, offering high-value travel options to Nevada, Idaho, and California,” said Josh Flyr, a Frontier Airlines executive. “We are laser-focused on redefining what consumers can expect from low-fare travel – from our expansive network map to the premium upgrades we offer – and we look forward to providing consumers with affordable flight options on these new routes starting this summer.”
Frontier and other airlines are parting out Spirit’s network
The expansion into Boise and the return to Oakland are strategic moves by Frontier, which is among the handful of airlines slowly dividing up the network once served by Spirit Airlines, bit by bit. These routes were both previously served by Spirit up until its demise on May 1.
Frontier was among the primary competitors of Spirit, one of the few airlines with similar low introductory price points and a decently large service map. Now part of that nationwide low-cost network belongs to Frontier.
Other airlines have also stepped up to take over routes once serviced by Spirit’s banana yellow jets.
Last month, JetBlue and Allegiant Air announced service expansions at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, formerly the main hub and operations center of Spirit.
JetBlue is adding 11 new services routes in and out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood (FLL), taking Spirit’s crown as the airport’s new No. 1 tenant.
Allegiant, meanwhile, is adding eight new nonstop routes in Florida, including to and from FLL, while also adding service to Orlando. The Orlando Airport was another Spirit Airlines stronghold for more than 30 years, and its departure was mourned by airport staff and employees last month.
While travelers to those cities will welcome some optionality when planning their flights, the real shoe to drop will be what happens in New York.
As part of the liquidation process, Spirit’s slots at LaGuardia Airport, the second-busiest airport in New York, are heading to auction.
LaGuardia is only a handful of airports in the U.S. that utilizes a slot system, which is meant to divy up service at high-traffic, highly competitive airports. Every airline in the U.S. would theoretically be interested in securing a spot at LaGuardia, and the slot system is the airport’s way of making carriers do the heavy lifting to decide who gets to fly there.
Spirit had 22 slots at LaGuardia, and industry experts say they could fetch upward of $86 million at auction.
At the time of the company’s collapse, Spirit also owned a smaller package of slots at nearby Newark Liberty International Airport. Those slots, which will also be auctioned off, are expected to draw significant interest as well.
Who gets the opportunity to buy the airport slots is still to be decided. Last month, Federal Aviation Administration chief Bryan Bedford told the Wall Street Journal he would prefer that those slots were awarded to other low-cost carriers “for the public good.”
Bedford, who will have ultimate approval over any deal, said that if a deal couldn’t be made to have those LaGuardia slots transferred to another budget airline, retiring them entirely to reduce congestion would also be an option.
Spirit’s abandoned slots are considered to be the crown jewels of its assets, easily outweighing the value of its planes, engines and other equipment. But the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates LaGuardia and Newark, might pump the brakes on a potential sale of the slots entirely.
The potential sale of these airport slots will likely be discussed at Spirit’s next bankruptcy court hearing on Wednesday, June 10.
