How Low-Cost Airlines Alter the Economics of Flying
Frontier, a privately held carrier, announced in July
that it planned to add 21 flights from Denver International Airport, mostly to smaller cities like Albuquerque; Louisville, Ky.; and Charleston, S. C.
The company said that it planned to double the number of nonstop routes it operates to 314 and its total number of routes to 1,000 by next summer.
Frontier Airlines, another low-cost carrier, had also added flights from Philadelphia, Mr. Tyrrell said.
The low-cost carrier began operating flights from Philadelphia International Airport
to Detroit in April 2016, offering one-way fares for less than $100, in some cases.
“Without the low-cost carriers, we would have been looking at a pretty significant downturn in
activity,” said James Tyrrell, chief revenue officer at Philadelphia International Airport.
The carrier now expects to increase its seat capacity in the domestic market by as much as
4.5 percent this year over last year, double the 2 percent growth Delta has forecast.
A recent study by a University of Virginia professor and a consultant at the Campbell-Hill Aviation Group calculated
that average one-way fares are $45 lower when Southwest serves a market with nonstop flights.
“It’s impossible to underestimate just how important the effect of low-cost carriers
are on a given route,” said William McGee, the aviation adviser for Consumers Union.