Frontier adding 8 nonstop cities
Four of the new routes coming in October, the other four next year.
Frontier Airlines is doubling the number of cities it serves with nonstop flights from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, officials with the airline announced Tuesday.
Half of the eight new flights will available in October, with the other four next year. The seats available in October will cost $49 one-way for an unspecified time, a company official said at a news conference.
Frontier, founded in 1994 after another, unrelated airline with the same name closed shop, is known for its low, no-frills fares, with additional fees for checking bags or other upgrades from basic service.
Customers were able Tuesday to begin making reservations for Frontier’s new direct flights to New Orleans, Phoenix, RaleighDurham and the LA/Ontario International Airport in Los Angeles’ eastern suburbs. Those flights will begin in October, said Tyri Squyres, Frontier’s vice president of marketing.
Flights to the other four destinations being added — Columbus, Ohio, Cincinnati, Charlotte, N.C., and San Jose, Calif. — will not be available for booking until September, Squyres said. Those flights will begin next spring or summer, he said.
Squyres said the Austin routes are part of the “biggest market expansion we’ve ever made. We are buying a lot of new aircraft, and we have to find places to fly them.”
Frontier’s new flights to Columbus and LA/Ontario are new nonstop designations among all the carriers serving Austin-Bergstrom, airport officials said. The other six cities already have nonstop flights from Austin on other airlines.
With these new flights, Austin will have nonstop service to 67 airports, including four in Mexico, one in Puerto Rico and two in Europe (with London-Gatwick due to be added to that list in March). That list also includes seven Texas airports. The airport on a typical weekday has 265 departing flights and 257 arriving airliners, spokesman Jim Halbrook said Tuesday.
Frontier currently offers nonstop service to Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare, Denver, Las Vegas, Orlando, Fla., Philadelphia, San Diego and Washington Dulles.