By Zach Cooke
Frontier Inaugurates Routes from Puerto Rico
Frontier Airlines recently announced the inauguration of eight new routes from Puerto Rico to the United States and Mexico. The beginning of these flights will make Frontier the largest operator regarding non-stop routes to the island, from a previous 12 to now 20.
The Denver-based carrier began operating from San Juan to Chicago’s Midway Airport, Clevland, Ohio, Baltimore and Dallas-Fort Worth on May 4. Service to Baltimore and Dallas will be daily, while Chicago will be operated six times weekly and Cleveland, four times weekly. On May 5, the carrier started service to Detroit, which will operate four times weekly.
Lastly in San Juan, service to Cancún, Mexico will begin on May 11 and will operate three times a week. The airline will be the only carrier to connect Puerto Rico and Mexico directly. The routes to Cancún and Detroit will be operated seasonally.
The start of these routes comes just one day before Spirit begins its five-route San Juan expansion. The Mirimar-Fla.-based carrier has launched routes to Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit and Hartford, Conn. All routes listed began on May 5 with the exception of service to Hartford which will begin on June 7.
Frontier began service to two of these destinations just a day prior. Chicago will have new services from both carriers, albeit different airports served. Spirit will begin operations to Detroit first. Spirit is now joining existing Frontier service to Atlanta and Hartford.
San Juan isn’t the only airport seeing expansion from Frontier. Both Aguadilla and Ponce will see a new route operated by the Denver-based carrier to Tampa, Fla. and Orlando, Fla. respectively. Both routes will be operated three times weekly and began May 4. Service to Tamapa joins the carrier’s service to Orlando from Aguadilla making Frontier the only carrier to operate the route until JetBlue launches its service to Tampa in July.
Ponce is a new city served by Frontier. The carrier joins JetBlue and Spirit to operate to Orlando from the city. The three carriers are the only scheduled passenger carriers to operate into and out of Ponce. By beginning service to Ponce, Frontier now provides three airports for residents and visitors to choose from, joining JetBlue and Spirit to offer the most destinations from the mainland United States to Puerto Rico.
Jorge Hernandez, CEO of Aerostar Puerto Rico, made a statement highlighting the positive impact that the new routes will provide stating “We congratulate Frontier Airlines on expanding its operations. This growth will translate into more flight options for travelers and, therefore, more jobs and commercial activity at the airport, for the benefit of Puerto Rico.”
Dubbed America’s Greenest Airline, Frontier will operate the routes using Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft. According to Airfleets.net, the Denver-based carrier’s Airbus aircraft with the new engine option, or neo, makes up roughly 74% of the current fleet. According to a press release from 2021, Frontier plans on retiring the company’s A320ceo aircraft from the fleet by the end of 2024, with the A321ceos following by the end of 2028.
Currently, the carrier is the largest operator of the A320neos in the United States and plans on taking deliveries of A320neos and A321neos through the end of 2029 to expand the airline’s fleet size to 272 aircraft.
