Frontier Airlines adds nonstop flights to 10 new destinations from Cleveland Hopkins

A Frontier Airlines jet taxis at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on Tuesday, July 27, 2021.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Frontier Airlines is expanding its offerings in Cleveland, and will offer nonstop flights to 10 new destinations starting in May.

The airline, which is establishing a crew base in Cleveland with more than 100 pilots and other personnel, said during a news conference Wednesday morning that nonstop service would become available to Houston Bush and Austin in Texas; Jacksonville and Pensacola in Florida; Myrtle Beach and Charleston in South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; New Orleans, Salt Lake City and Baltimore.

This is in addition to two new nonstop flights to Minneapolis and New York’s LaGuardia airport, which were previously announced.

Flights to these new destinations will start being available in mid-May. Cleveland Hopkins already had nonstop options to some of the cities from other airlines, but Jacksonville, New Orleans, Austin, Charleston, Savannah, Salt Lake City and Pensacola did not, according to the airport’s website.

Frontier has previously flown to some of these cities, including Charleston and Austin.

The announcement means Frontier will offer flights to 30 destinations out of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Frontier says its average peak summer daily departures should be up by 38% year-over-year with the new flights.

Frontier’s new flights come on the heels of it opening a new crew base at the airport. The crew base is slated to open in March. Frontier said it will employ 110 pilots, 250 flight attendants and 50 aircraft maintenance workers during its first year in operation.

CEO Barry Biffle had teased that these new routes were coming when the crew base was announced. He said in November that Frontier has been very successful in Cleveland. At the time Frontier flew to 17 nonstop destinations, the most of any airline at the airport.

Through the first nine months of 2023 Frontier had served 1.23 million passengers at Cleveland Hopkins, making it the third largest carrier at Cleveland Hopkins behind only United and American airlines.

Cleveland Hopkins said in a news release in January that it served just under 9.9 million passengers in 2023, up 13.5% from 2022. The airport said its passenger count has seen a 98.3% recovery when compared to 2019, the last full year before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The airport said passenger counts from September through November were higher in 2023 versus 2019, and it predicts that 2024 traffic will surpass pre-pandemic totals.

To celebrate the Wednesday’s announcement, Frontier is promoting a sale and says fares will be as low as $19. Tickets must be bought on or before Friday, and other restrictions apply.

The new routes, however, will not operate seven days a week. Service will be offered four times a week on the new routes to Houston, Jacksonville, New Orleans, and Charleston, with service three days a week to the other new cities. Frontier noted that the frequency is subject to change.

It was 10 years ago this month that United announced the closing the Cleveland hub that it had inherited with its 2010 Continental Airlines merger. Since then fares have come down, but so to have the nonstop flight options out of Cleveland, leaving gaps in service like those the new Frontier flights are filling.

cleveland.com travel writer Susan Glaser contributed to this story.

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