Frontier Airlines adds 10 destinations out of PHL

Philadelphians will soon have more options for cheap flights out of Philadelphia International Airport.

Frontier Airlines, the low-cost airline, is adding 10 routes out of PHL in May, the company announced on Wednesday.

“These new routes span much of the country and represent our continued commitment to growth from PHL,” said Barry Biffle, CEO of Frontier in a statement. “PHL will see the second largest increase in daily departures on Frontier this summer among our major operational bases.”

While some of the routes could be seasonal, depending on how successful they are, Biffle said the company would like to fly them year-round. A couple of the routes have operated in the past, such as a flight to Portland, Maine, but most are new offerings, he said.

The flights Frontier will add in May out of PHL are:

The Detroit and Chicago flights will be offered daily, St. Louis will be offered four times a week, and the rest will be offered three times a week.

Once the new routes launch, Frontier will be providing service out of PHL to 39 destinations, with on average 44 daily departures out of the airport this summer. The airline is the second largest carrier at PHL according to the airport, based on the amount of passengers, said Biffle. The company’s biggest market out of PHL is Orlando, Fla., he said.

Frontier employs over 300 flight attendants out of its Philadelphia International Airport and Trenton-Mercer Airport base. When the new flights launch in May, 190 pilots will work out of these locations. The company plans to hire 65 flight attendants as it prepares to service more destinations out of PHL.

Fares for all of the new flights start at $19 if purchased by Feb. 9, part of a promotion to entice more travelers to fly Frontier.

Frontier, which is based in Colorado, and operates a fleet of 134 passenger planes, is able to keep its costs low in part because of how often the company flies each of its airplanes, said Biffle. The airline flies on average over 11 hours a day while the industry average is less than 10 hours, he said.

“We have the lowest costs in the industry, and we pass those savings on in the form of lower prices,” he said.

The news of the expansion of service comes as the airline announced two additional routes starting in May from PHL to Pittsburgh and Minneapolis.

Some of the destinations Frontier will offer out of PHL are expensive on other carriers, said Biffle. A round-trip weekend flight to Pittsburgh from Philadelphia in June with Frontier costs about $178 according to the company’s booking website. A similar flight costs around $559, according to American Airlines’ booking website.

“The [destinations] that we’ve announced recently are just ones that are really high priced if you wanted to fly. Most consumers were just locked out. They were forced to drive or not go at all,” he said.

In December, Frontier also started operating a flight from PHL to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, the only nonstop service between the two airports.