Front Range Airport is gunning for Frontier Airlines to locate a maintenance facility at the airport.
Denver-based Frontier is looking at Front Range for a heavy-maintenance hangar with two bays, each large enough to fit an Airbus 320, by the second quarter of 2007, said Front Range Airport director Dennis Heap.
Front Range, about 6 miles southeast of Denver International Airport, is a general-aviation airport with no regularly scheduled passenger service.
Getting Frontier to run a maintenance operation at Front Range would be “very big” for the airport and could lead to other activity, Heap said.
“Once you have one of those facilities on your airport … it opens up the door for other ones,” Heap said.
Frontier would still do other maintenance at its DIA hub, he said.
It’s not the first time Frontier has looked at doing maintenance at Front Range. The consideration comes as Frontier negotiates for maintenance space.
Frontier has for years considered building a new hangar at DIA. Months ago, it started negotiating a renewal of its sublease on part of Continental Airlines’ maintenance hangar at DIA in advance of a February expiration date.
Front Range may not be the most likely option. Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas said the carrier is “just kind of making sure that we’re keeping up to date with all the potential plans.”
The construction of a hangar for Frontier at Front Range would be financed by Front Range Airport investors, who could lease it back to Frontier, Heap said. Infrastructure completed this year for the airport’s Module 2 can accommodate a structure that large, he said.
Heap called Front Range a “cost-effective solution” for Frontier.
An aircraft maintenance facility at Front Range Airport could benefit from Emily Griffith Opportunity School’s airframe and power-plant mechanics program at the airport, which trains airplane mechanics.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-954-1488 or kyamanouchi@denverpost.com.
