Frontier Airlines adding 4 Las Vegas routes this summer

Frontier Airlines is slowly becoming a company with one of the most nonstop destinations from Las Vegas, after announcing plans on Tuesday to add four routes from Harry Reid International Airport.

The Denver-based ultra-low-cost carrier said it would begin flying daily routes to and from Baltimore, Maryland; Buffalo, New York; Hartford, Connecticut; and Kansas City, Missouri, beginning Aug. 9.

The new destinations will bump up the total number of cities served to 57 — only Southwest Airlines (63 cities) and Allegiant Air (61 cities) have more destinations.

Las Vegas is the third busiest destination in Frontier’s system behind Denver and Orlando, Florida.

“Frontier Airlines continues to expand from Las Vegas,” said Daniel Shurz, senior vice president of commercial at Frontier. “We now offer a wide array of flight options from Las Vegas spanning the U.S., along with a number of destinations in Mexico, providing Las Vegas-area consumers even more opportunities to enjoy our ‘low fares done right.’”

Frontier is offering introductory fares of $99 to Baltimore, Buffalo and Hartford, and $89 to Kansas City. The special fares must be purchased by Monday at 9 p.m. for travel on select days from Aug. 9 through Oct. 5. Round trip purchases are not required.

“Frontier’s commitment to expanding its footprint in Las Vegas is an ongoing benefit to the city and its residents,” said Chris Jones, chief marketing officer at Reid International.

“These new nonstop routes represent an increase in affordable opportunities for visitors to experience Las Vegas,” he said. “We look forward to welcoming even more travelers from Baltimore, Buffalo, Hartford and Kansas City beginning this fall.”

Frontier flies twin-engine Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft variants that have up to 230 seats.

It will compete on the Baltimore and Kansas City routes with market leader Southwest Airlines and ultra-low-carrier Spirit Airlines. Frontier and Spirit announced plans in February to merge in a $6.6 billion deal, which shareholders are scheduled to vote on Friday despite a rival bid made by JetBlue.

Frontier will also compete in Buffalo with Southwest, which has one round trip a week to and from Buffalo.

There currently are no airlines offering nonstop service to and from Hartford, but a new carrier to Las Vegas plans to operate that route after Frontier begins. Cottonwood Heights, Utah-based Breeze Airways, which will begin its first flights to Las Vegas from Richmond, Virginia, Thursday, will fly the Hartford route twice a week beginning Sept. 7.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.