Frontier Airlines is making further changes to its Wilmington/New Castle schedule.
DelawareOnline.com reported the carrier, in a surprise move, will temporarily drop Tampa from its schedule in the fall and pick up service in December.
Frontier will then add flights to Orlando and Tampa on a non-daily basis. Frontier earlier announced it would halt service to Chicago, Fort Meyers, Atlanta and Denver over the winter, with the possibility of service resuming at a later time. Frontier is also dropping service to Detroit. The decision to drop service to Fort Meyers was widely criticized by the large number of local travelers who spend a lot of time in the winter in that area.
The airline has not ruled out expansion from Delaware, but of late has focused its Delaware Valley efforts on Mercer County/Trenton. That has led to fears that Wilmington might again be without scheduled airline service.
The company is now under the owner of Indigo Partners, which took a fresh look at its flight schedule.
Under Indigo, the company has been less afraid of moving into large airports. The airline has also gained more room to maneuver with the continuing wave of airline mergers.
Airlines, like Southwest, which acquired AirTran and United, which merged with Continental, have been less inclined to directly take on Frontier.
The expansion ha also made have made it more difficult to allocate planes to serve New Castle.
For example, the carrier added flights from Dulles Airport in northern Virginia. Frontier has also seen passenger growth at its hub in Denver.
The company has also hired many new executives from ultra-low cost carriers Spirit and Alegiant, airlines that Frontier is emulating.
Frontier officials did not initially respond for a request for comment.
