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Frontier Airlines to return three days per week

Service cuts to happen when airline comes back
Frontier Airlines will return to Durango-La Plata County Airport. The airline will service the airport three days a week, instead of a full week.

Frontier Airlines plans to return to Durango-La Plata County Airport in April, but the airline will offer service only three days a week.

The discount airline recently released its 2015 schedule. It shows service returning to the Durango-Denver route on April 16. After that date, Frontier has flights scheduled every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday through Aug. 9.

Frontier will not offer service the other four days a week.

Durango “doesn’t really show the strength for year-round service, but we’ve been pleased in years past with strength in the summer,” said Todd Lehmacher, a Frontier spokesman.

Frontier is in its second year of serving Durango on a seasonal basis. The Denver-based airline ceased daily service Oct. 29, 2013. It then resumed flights in May for the busy summer season.

Durango is one of six markets Frontier serves seasonally. The others are Missoula, Montana; Knoxville, Tennessee; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Bismarck, North Dakota; and Greensboro, North Carolina.

“It’s primarily leisure in the summer,” Lehmacher said. “Durango’s a nice summer destination. We’ve just seen strength in the summer that warrants resuming the flight.”

Director of Aviation Kip Turner and other local officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Some local customers complained this summer when Frontier canceled flights that customers already had booked. And in April, Frontier moved to an a-la-carte cost model that charges fees for carry-on baggage and ticket booking.

Because of its reduced schedule, Frontier accounted for only 15 percent of passenger enplanements in Durango in 2013.

Durango also is served by United Airlines, American Airlines and US Airways. (American and US Airways recently merged).

United flies to Denver, while American and US Airways fly to Phoenix and Dallas-Fort Worth.

cslothower@durangoherald.com



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