Tampa airport gets 5 new Frontier routes, including New York, Green Bay

Four months after establishing a base at Tampa International Airport, Frontier Airlines is already growing.

The low-cost Denver carrier announced Tuesday that it’s adding five new nonstop routes to and from Tampa, with limited introductory fares starting as low as $39.

Service to Rochester, N.Y. will run four times weekly starting Nov. 30. Flights to New York’s LaGuardia Airport will run three times per week starting Dec. 1. Green Bay, Wisc., will get two weekly flights starting Dec. 16. And on Dec. 17, Frontier will launch twice-weekly service to Columbus, Ohio, and thrice-weekly flights to Bloomington, Ill.

These are Frontier’s first new routes to and from Tampa International Airport since the start of the pandemic; they bring the carrier’s total routes in Tampa to 26. The LaGuardia and Columbus flights are expected to be year-round, while the other three will be seasonal. And Green Bay and Bloomington are new destinations from Tampa’s airport.

“There’s outbound demand to these cities, and we’re bringing lower fares,” said Daniel Shurz, Frontier’s senior vice president of commercial. “There’s continued growth and demand to the Gulf Coast. That’s a key part of this.”

Frontier in May opened a crew base at Tampa International Airport for approximately 140 pilots and 250 flight attendants. While the carrier already had a significant base in Orlando, Florida’s continued desirability as a destination meant expanding in Tampa made sense.

“The choice to open a base is a belief that there’s a growth opportunity for us in Tampa — and growth that we intend to take advantage of,” he said. “Tampa was one of two crew bases we’re opening this year; we’re opening another one in Atlanta next month. It’s driven by growth potential in those cities, absolutely.”

In a statement, Tampa International Airport CEO Joe Lopano said he “welcomes this expanding partnership with Frontier,” which is one of the hub’s fastest-growing carriers.

“Not only do these routes add new low-cost connections for our local residents, but they bring more northern and Midwestern visitors to our award-winning beaches, hotels, restaurants and attractions,” Lopano said.

Frontier is just the latest low-cost carrier to expand operations at Tampa International Airport of late. Two new low-cost airlines, Avelo Airlines and Breeze Airways, kicked off service from Tampa this spring, with Breeze launching its first-ever flight from the airport in May.

With the new crew center and routes, Shurz said Frontier is likely to hire new employees in Tampa, and that the company’s local expansion isn’t done yet.

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“When we open a base, we’re making a commitment that we intend to grow in a city,” he said. “Was the idea that we would start to add routes from Tampa? Yes. This is the plan for winter 2021 into 2022. We don’t have specific plans for 2022, but I absolutely have an expectation that we will be adding more destinations from Tampa.”