ATA Airlines said Tuesday it will end its Denver flights as of Jan. 10, following Southwest Airlines’ announcement that it will begin flying those routes in January.
The Indianapolis-based low-cost carrier also announced Tuesday it is ending service to and from Indianapolis and San Juan, Puerto Rico, as of Jan. 10.
ATA has four daily nonstop flights from Denver to Chicago’s Midway Airport and two daily nonstop flights from Denver to Phoenix. The carrier has a code-share partnership with Southwest on flights out of Denver, but last week Southwest said it would discontinue the partnership.
Southwest’s entrance into Denver would make it more difficult for ATA to draw passengers.
“In Denver alone, carriers such as Ted, Frontier and now Southwest Airlines are intensifying competition,” said ATA senior vice president and chief commercial officer Subodh Karnik in a statement. “Fluctuating demand, excess capacity and high fuel costs were central to all of today’s announced suspensions.”
ATA has been flying to Denver since 1998 and carried 57,862 revenue passengers in August, 1.5 percent of Denver International Airport’s domestic market share. It has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy since October 2004.
ATA’s gate on the C concourse, adjacent to Southwest’s gates, will become available.
“Basically, Southwest is replacing ATA,” said Evergreen-based aviation consultant Mike Boyd, but it may not be an equal swap.
“You already had Southwest pricing in place” because the carrier had a code- share on those routes, said Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas. “But ATA’s a different airline from Southwest. There are different strategies in competing with those two.”
ATA said customers with tickets on affected routes for travel after Jan. 9 will get full refunds or alternative travel.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-820-1488 or kyamanouchi@denverpost.com.
