Frontier Airlines cuts 8 routes in latest network shakeup

Frontier Airlines continues to make big changes to its network.

This time, the Denver-based carrier slashed eight domestic routes, as first seen in Cirium schedules and later confirmed by a carrier spokesperson. The cuts are far-reaching and touch multiple airports across the country.

You’ll find a map of the affected routes below, but highlights include two flights cut from El Paso, Texas, and two from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

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In fact, the routes to El Paso just launched a few weeks ago in May, and they’re now being cut effective immediately. After flights from Ontario, California, and San Diego to El Paso are suspended, Frontier will only serve the Texas city from Denver and Las Vegas.

Frontier’s cuts don’t represent any market exits for the airline, but the San Juan drawbacks are notable due to the fact that the airline operates a base in the Puerto Rican capital.

That said, San Juan has recently become the latest battleground for airline dominance. JetBlue Airways, which has historically operated a focus city in San Juan, recently announced that it would double down on service there, as it ceded market share in recent years to other carriers that entered the market more recently, including Frontier and its ultra-low-cost rival Spirit Airlines.

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In recent months, Frontier has been shifting from a purely leisure-focused network strategy to one that touches many more major metropolitan centers, including most notably New York. In fact, the airline added two routes from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) in March, and it just followed up with a third route from JFK to Atlanta launching in August.

This focus on going head-to-head with major carriers from their megahubs comes as there’s seemingly been too much capacity added to cities such as Orlando and Las Vegas.

Earlier this year, Frontier added a whopping 54 new routes followed by 17 more just a few weeks later. It also slashed 16 in February, followed by 14 more in March.

For its part, Frontier declined to comment on the route changes, with spokesperson Jen de la Cruz saying succinctly that “they have been discontinued at least seasonally.”

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