Frontier Airlines adding 5 nonstop routes out of McCarran airport

Budget carrier Frontier Airlines is adding five nonstop routes from Las Vegas.

Frontier’s new cities are Des Moines, Iowa; Harlingen, Texas; Minneapolis; New Orleans and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The new flights will start in September.

“The demand is coming back, everything’s reopening lots, and we’re glad to bring a lot more tourists to Las Vegas,” Frontier Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Daniel Shurz. “But we’re also extremely glad to be able to offer a low price to residents in the region to fly to these destinations across the country.”

Frontier’s nonstop expansion comes as McCarran International Airport continues its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. In May, more than 3.5 million travelers passed through McCarran’s gates, representing a 21 percent increase over April’s 2.9 million passenger count, according to data released in late June by the Clark County Department of Aviation.

Chris Jones, McCarran International Airport chief marketing officer, said Tuesday that he expects that growth continued in June and carried on into July.

Tuesday’s announcement is a continuance of Frontier’s rapid growth in Las Vegas, officials said.

As recently as 2014, Frontier had just one route coming into Las Vegas — Denver. By the start of the pandemic in March 2020, Frontier had almost 40 markets coming into McCarran. In September, the company will offer routes to 54 U.S. destinations, plus Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Frontier’s expansion provides the “ability for locals to get an easy trip to cities large and small within the United States and Mexico,” Jones said. “That’s extremely important. We like to travel, we like to go places, visit friends and family, go to sporting events. … This gives a lot of opportunities (at) fares people can afford.”

Frontier will offer an average of 57 daily departures from McCarran International Airport in September, which is an increase of 73 percent from September 2019, according to Shurz.

He added that Frontier is McCarran’s third-largest airline carrier by passenger numbers. The airline employs over 700 people at McCarran, Shurz said.

“This is the great thing about Las Vegas,” Shurz said. “Everywhere in the country, there is demand. This is a destination that appeals to such a wide cross section of the population.”

The new nonstop routes were part of a larger Tuesday announcement from Frontier in which the company unveiled a total of 21 new nonstop routes in Las Vegas, Atlanta and Dallas.

Frontier is celebrating the new routes with introductory fares starting from $29. The Frontier website showed $156 one-way fares between Las Vegas and Sioux Falls on July 31 and $295 for flights on Aug. 1.

Contact Dylan Svoboda at dsvoboda@reviewjournal.com. Follow @dylanksvoboda on Twitter.