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