Passenger traffic at Denver International Airport is on the decline, and the airport says changes at Frontier Airlines are the primary cause.
However, DIA officials say other airlines have jumped in to backfill Frontier’s decreased flight capacity in a move designed to lessen the impact on both travelers and the airport’s budget.
“In February, Frontier’s passenger traffic declined by 31 percent, but overall (DIA) passenger traffic declined by only 2 percent,” said Laura Jackson, DIA’s vice president of air service development. “Growth by other carriers, led by Southwest, has significantly softened the impact. Delta, Spirit and other carriers also have seen substantial growth during this time.”
Overall, February passenger traffic at the airport decreased in February by 2.3 percent compared with a year ago — dropping to 3,693,876 passengers from 3,779,715.
Frontier’s passenger traffic, however, has been on a sharper year-over-year decline. The airline’s passenger count dropped 12 percent in November compared with the same month in 2013 and slipped 18 percent in December, 27.5 percent in January and 31 percent in February.
The decreases are directly related to a reduction in flights as the airline converts to an ultra-low-cost carrier, spokesman Todd Lehmacher said.
“Frontier has continued to leverage new … opportunities outside of Colorado as the airline reduces its reliance on high cost, low revenue connecting traffic through its Denver home,” he said. “It is important that the airline maintain a diversified portfolio of flying to avoid over-reliance on any one airport or region.”
, blaming a growing tax burden, DIA’s landing fee structure and too few city economic incentives — .
Since then,
has decreased destinations from Denver by 21 percent, to 45 from 57.
This led airport officials to initiate talks with other airlines. Many carriers have jumped on board, including Spirit Airlines, which reported a 37 percent increase in February, and American Airlines, which increased its traffic by 9 percent, DIA said.
United and Southwest also are helping to pick up the slack, DIA CEO Kim Day said.
“United has increased destinations and saw its busiest February since 2010. Southwest Airlines continues to increase capacity and load factors in Denver,” she said in a statement.
The airport is also continuing to aggressively pursue other airlines for the Denver market — a strategy that conveniently coincided with Denver serving as the host city for the
Routes Americas brought delegates from 275 airports and more than 80 airlines from around the globe to Denver for three days of networking, planning and deal making.
“It was part of our long-term air service development strategy, but the timing worked to our advantage,” Jackson said. “We also have conducted other, ongoing proactive outreach with other carriers outside of this event.”
Lehmacher said no farther Frontier flight cuts are planned — for now.
“We are happy with the current level of low-fare service that Frontier operates from Denver and no further reductions in flying are planned at present,” he said. “Colorado will continue to remain an important part of Frontier’s nationwide network.”
Frontier is DIA’s third-largest carrier, behind United and Southwest. Frontier’s market share held steady at 18 percent through most of 2014, but has dropped to 12 percent and is still falling.
“Based on the schedules for July 2015, Frontier will be less than 11 percent of (DIA’s) total capacity,” Jackson said.
The next closest is American, which held 7 percent of DIA’s market share in February, up from 6 percent in January.
Overall, DIA reported a record 53.4 million passengers in 2014, ranking as the 15th- busiest airport in the world and the fifth- busiest in the U.S.
Laura Keeney: 303-954-1337, lkeeney@denverpost.com or twitter.com/LauraKeeney
