Frontier flights expected to reduce fares for Corridor travelers

CEDAR RAPIDS -- If past experience in other markets is any indication, Frontier Airlines flights between Cedar Rapids and Denver that begin Thursday will reduce ticket prices for business and leisure travel.

Denver-based Frontier initially will offer flights on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, departing from Denver at 3:10 p.m. and arriving in Cedar Rapids at 5:59 p.m.; and departing from Cedar Rapids at 6:35 p.m. and arriving in Denver at 7:43 p.m.

Frontier will compete with United Express, which serves Cedar Rapids with more early morning and late evening daily and Sunday flights. Business travelers prefer to fly out early in the morning and return in the evening, allowing them to work a full day at their destination.

Business travelers are accustomed to paying higher fares due to the unpredictable nature and often short duration of their travel. Leisure travelers are more price sensitive, but more flexible in terms of when they can travel and return from their destination.

A study of the impact of Frontier entering the Knoxville, Tenn., market showed significant lowering of airfares along competitive routes.

The study, commissioned by the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority and the East Tennesseans for Airfare Competition, showed that travelers making reservations seven days or less before departure experienced savings ranging from $198 to $707. The price range of tickets went from $561-$996 each way to $289-$363 each way, a drop of about two-thirds.

Before Frontier's entry, all but one of the nonstop fares to Denver was above $300 one way, according to the study, noting that the only fare below $300 was a 30-day advance purchase fare at $277.50 one way.

Tim Bradshaw, director of The Eastern Iowa Airport, has said that landing Frontier will help stem the "leakage" of travelers to the Quad City International Airport in Moline in the wake of the Nov. 30 departure of AirTran, a no frills airline that provided nonstop service to Atlanta.

“Frontier will provide a low-cost alternative for passengers traveling to Denver and western destinations such as Los Angeles,  Seattle, San Diego and beyond," Bradshaw said. "Business travelers are known to take Frontier to their destination and return by way of another airline. I think Frontier will attract both business and leisure travelers."

Cedar Rapids has typically lost passengers to Moline as well as Des Moines and Chicago. Lower airfares usually have been cited as the reason travelers use other airports.

In 2007, a decade after AirTran began service to Quad City International, The Eastern Iowa Airport lost 200,000 passengers the western Illinois airport. The leakage cost The Eastern Iowa Airport $3.5 million of revenue annually in Federal Aviation Administration entitlement funds, passenger facilities charges, parking fees and concessions.

The Iowa Office of Aviation has calculated that $2.6 million of Federal Aviation Administration entitlement funding is lost by Iowa commercial airports annually because of passengers flying from airports in neighboring states.

Last month, Bradshaw told the Cedar Rapids Airport Commission that passenger traffic improved 13.9 percent in March when compared with the same month of 2011. For the year, passenger departures were up 10.6 percent through March 31.

The Eastern Iowa Airport has an opportunity to capture additional market share between the departure of AirTran from the Quad Cities and the launch of Southwest Airlines service to Des Moines on Sept. 30. Southwest acquired AirTran in May 2011 and is taking over existing AirTran service from Des Moines to Chicago's Midway Airport.

An early February survey of airfares from Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Moline to Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Tampa/St. Petersburg and Miami found that the price difference has narrowed significantly.

Over the last three years, the Eastern Iowa Airport regained Delta Airlines service to Atlanta and added Continental Airlines service to Houston. The Frontier service brings the total number of airlines serving The Eastern Iowa Airport to six with service to 11 nonstop destinations.