Frontier slashes 16 routes, cuts 2 cities in massive route-map shakeup

Frontier Airlines is making some big adjustments to its network.

The Denver-based carrier recently filed plans to drop 16 routes from its network, two representing city cuts for the airline. The schedule changes were first seen in Cirium timetables and later confirmed by a carrier spokesperson.

Frontier’s cuts are pretty far-reaching, but the two most impacted cities are Orlando and Las Vegas.

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Six of the 16 affected routes touch one of Frontier’s busiest operating bases at Orlando International Airport (MCO). Four of the others originate from the carrier’s base at the Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas.

Furthermore, Harrisburg International Airport (MDT) in Pennsylvania and Los Cabos International Airport (SJD) in Mexico represent station exits for Frontier, meaning that the airline will no longer serve either airport.

You can find the full list of cuts at the bottom of this story, as well as a map of all 16 routes below.

For its part, Frontier cited a broader shift in network strategy as being behind the cuts.

“These changes are both a reflection of our current strategy to shift capacity away from saturated markets such as LAS and MCO, as well as a periodic review and updating of routes based on demand, seasonality, and other factors,” said Frontier spokesperson Jen de la Cruz.

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In fact, these cuts are indeed in concert with remarks shared by airline CEO Barry Biffle during the carrier’s fourth-quarter earnings call earlier this month.

According to Biffle, “No one is more aggressive in engaging in self-help to address overcapacity in leisure markets than Frontier. By summer, we plan to reduce Las Vegas and Orlando combined capacity by 11 points,” he said on the call.

Las Vegas and Orlando are popular markets for ultra-low-cost carriers like Frontier, who have historically been able to stimulate demand with rock-bottom prices. However, that strategy hasn’t worked in recent months, partially because the larger legacy network carriers have also grown or added capacity in these markets.

Instead of simply hoping for a change in customer sentiment, Frontier will slash “marginal unprofitable flying” in Las Vegas and Orlando, but it won’t “retreat from our network footprint in either market,” according to Biffle.

This strategy shift has led Frontier to announce a whopping 54 new routes across 38 airports in just a single announcement in January.

Many of these routes, including those from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD) and Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), compete head-to-head with some of Frontier’s largest U.S. competitors, like American Airlines and United Airlines.

By connecting larger cities, Frontier hopes to attract a segment of traffic known in the industry as “VFR,” or visiting friends and relatives.

These are “high-fare VFR markets” that should “mature” faster and should yield profitability sooner than the “oversupplied leisure markets” that Frontier is exiting, Biffle said.