Frontier Airlines and Denver International Airport completed yesterday a ceremonial groundbreaking for the new 120.000 square-foot (more than 11.000 square metres) terminal at the east end of Concourse A at the airport serving Colorado’s state capital city.
The project includes the redevelopment of 83.000 square feet (7.710 square metres) of space and the addition of a 37.000 square feet (3.400 square metres) passenger transit area. The facility will have fourteen boarding gates and adjacent maintenance facilities. In addition, the airline will have exclusive branding rights throughout the new facility.
The airline plans to move all of its boarding and deplaning to remote parking positions. Once completed, passengers will board and deplane aircraft via stairs on the apron rather than through boarding bridges.
Currently, it mainly uses nine gates in Concourse A lounge with boarding bridges. With the changes, it would gain preferential use of fourteen remote positions. The move, planned for 2024, would make the slots currently used by Frontier available for other airlines and increase flexibility in gate allocation.
The airline has highlighted, in particular, the greater operational efficiency that the change will bring. New procedures will shorten waiting times between flights. In some cases, they can be reduced by almost half, thanks to the possibility of using the front and rear doors of the aircraft simultaneously.
The work will be carried out in conjunction with the airport management, which will invest 317 million dollars.
“We are thrilled to join with our partners at Denver International Airport and the City of Denver to break ground on this new facility, which will provide a beautiful, convenient, customer-centric experience for departing and arriving Frontier passengers”, said Barry Biffle, the company’s CEO.
Denver, Frontier Airlines’ main hub
Denver International Airport (DEN) is Frontier Airlines’ main hub. Currently, the low-cost carrier is the third largest operator in terms of seats offered, with a 10.7% share of the total.
According to data obtained through the Cirium platform, the airline scheduled a total of 4.120 operations to and from Denver during August. Total seats available will reach 800.800.
United and Southwest, the two carriers with the largest market share at the airport, will use 39 new gates, which will be available by the end of 2022. As a result, and against the backdrop of a recovery in air traffic at Denver, the new terminal is particularly important for Frontier.
See also: Frontier Airlines will fly between Denver and Houston – Hobby
