Denver-based Ultra-Low-Cost Carrier Frontier Airlines has silently decided to end just over a dozen routes around the country, and along with that the termination of flights to Rochester, N.Y. The airline started flying there roughly two years ago in 2021, whilst the world was still in the midst of a pandemic.
They operate flights from Rochester to Orlando year-round but have also offered Denver and Tampa on a brief seasonal basis. It would be good to point out that they do compete heavily on two of the three routes they operated out of the city.
Orlando flights directly compete with Southwest and Spirit flights and indirectly with Allegiant which operates flights to Orlando/Sanford. Tampa flights competed with Southwest; however, they had no competitors on the Denver flights, and the carrier’s exit will mean the airport doesn’t serve any destinations west of Chicago.
While Frontier’s exit is a blow for the city, that is cushioned by the announcement of Avelo Air starting flights to Rochester in June of 2023, although their flights will go to Raleigh and only twice a week. For those in the area wanting to fly Frontier out of Upstate NY, they can continue to do so as they fly to Buffalo two hours west of Rochester, and Syracuse located just about two hours east of Rochester.
