Frontier Airlines will halt flights to Colorado Springs on Nov. 4, Colorado Springs Airport officials announced Friday.

Jennifer de la Cruz, senior director of corporate communications for the Denver-based low-fare carrier, confirmed the move, saying, “We periodically review and update our routes based on demand, seasonality, and other factors. We continue to offer service to a wide range of destinations throughout the U.S. and internationally from Denver.”

Frontier operates nine flights a week from Colorado Springs to Las Vegas and Phoenix and carried 37,220 passengers on outgoing flights in the first seven months of this year, according to the latest monthly traffic report from the Colorado Springs Airport. That’s about 6% of the more than 600,000 passengers who flew out of the airport during the seven-month period.

“While we are disappointed in their departure, we remain hopeful for their return,” airport officials said Friday in a statement that also noted that low-fare giant Southwest Airlines also offers nonstop flights to both cities served by Frontier.

Frontier was hit hard by Southwest’s expansion to Colorado Springs in March 2021 with 13 daily flights to Las Vegas, Phoenix and three other cities. Through July of this year, Frontier saw a nearly 30% drop in passenger traffic from the same period last year. Of the other four airlines serving the Springs, American’s traffic so far this year is down nearly 12% from a year ago while passenger numbers for Delta, Southwest and United all were up during the same period.

Frontier’s passenger numbers “have gone down and down over the past six to 12 months,” said Greg Phillips, the city director of aviation. “They offered a low price point and plenty of (fare) sales, but in the end, they weren’t fully successful in Colorado Springs.”

Frontier began serving Colorado Springs in 2008 and grew to become the airport’s second-largest carrier in 2012 before halting service the next year. Frontier returned to the state’s second-largest city in 2016 by offering a few flights a week to several cities.

Phillips said Frontier’s departure will create “opportunities, and we will try to capitalize on those opportunities both with our existing carriers by trying to convince them to add more flights to the cities Frontier is serving, and with other airlines that don’t currently serve Colorado Springs.” He cited Spirit Airlines, which is being acquired by JetBlue; Alaska Airlines and startups Avelo Airlines and Breeze Airways as possible targets.

“it’s like losing a member of the family, and I hate that, but once the decision was made, we will press forward and capitalize on the opportunity” Frontier’s departure creates, Phillips said. “We would welcome them back if they see an opportunity in Colorado Springs in the future.”

Despite Frontier’s departure and declines in passenger numbers in June and July from a year earlier, Phillips said he still expects the airport’s traffic numbers to grow by nearly 100,000 to 1.03 million this year, the highest annual total since 2007.

Frontier also is ending service to Albany, N.Y., and Huntsville, Ala., next month, citing low demand. However, the carrier is expanding service in November at major airports in Atlanta and Phoenix and began construction last month on a 14-gate expansion at Denver International Airport that is scheduled for completion in mid-2024. Barry Biffle, Frontier’s CEO, told Reuters recently the carrier plans to expand its seat capacity by 10% to 20% a year through 2024.

Mike Boyd, an Evergreen-based airline industry consultant, said Frontier’s departure is no surprise as the airline is “probably one of the most flexible out there. If their service works, they stay; if it doesn’t, they leave and there are no hard feelings.”

Boyd said the entire airline industry is reducing seat capacity in the fourth quarter and the first quarter of next year amid forecasts of a national recession. Budget carriers like Frontier that depend mostly on leisure travelers are expected to be hit especially hard by a downturn, he said.

He forecasts that passenger numbers in Colorado Springs could be down as much as 15% from last year, which he said has “nothing to do with Colorado Springs and everything to do with the economy.”

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