"Frontier gives DIA deadline for gates"

Thursday, September 4, 2003

Frontier gives DIA deadline for gates
Carrier says it may find 2nd hub to handle growth
By Greg Griffin
The Denver (CO) Post


The city of Denver has two to three months to find eight more gates at
Denver International Airport for Frontier Airlines - or the growing carrier
will look elsewhere to expand its operations. 

Without a commitment by October or November, the Denver-based airline will
move forward with a backup plan to create a second hub in another city,
Frontier officials said Wednesday.

Frontier needs at least four new gates no later than the end of the year,
and another four by April, when new aircraft begin arriving and the spring
schedule kicks in.

"If we don't have a place to park those planes in April, then it becomes an
operational problem," said Andrew Hudson, Frontier's senior manager of
government relations.

Frontier set the deadline because it would take six or seven months of
planning before it could begin operating from a new airport.
  
Frontier would prefer to grow in Denver, but the airline has held talks with
airport officials in St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Kansas City, Mo. Other cities
also have contacted Frontier in recent months.

Vicki Braunagel, Denver's co-manager of aviation, said the airport is
working closely with Frontier to address the gate issue as quickly as
possible.

"We're working to accommodate their needs - as we understand them - and to
provide Frontier with as much capacity as is economically viable," she said.

Frontier expects to increase its operations 17 percent this year and has
been pressuring Denver for gates on the A concourse now controlled by United
Airlines. The carrier also might support an expansion of the concourse to
add at least 10 gates at a cost of up to $300 million.

But United is in the throes of bankruptcy and has refused to give up gates,
and the expansion is considered a costly solution for an airport already
saddled with high debt and carrier fees.

United and its regional partners fly more than 60 percent of DIA's
passengers. Frontier is the next biggest at the airport with about 13
percent. United uses more than 40 gates on the B concourse and eight on A,
while Frontier has 10 gates on A and uses four that belong to other
carriers.

Frontier officials conceded that the carrier probably won't get United's A
concourse gates, but they still hope to use some of them until a permanent
solution is found. United has offered the use of two gates for up to a year.

DIA recently freed up one gate by moving Alaska Airlines from the A
concourse to C. The airport also plans to build two temporary gates at the
west end of the concourse that could be converted to permanent use.

Officials at Frontier and DIA would not discuss other options under
discussion, but the airport has said it is reviewing the expansion plan.

Much depends on when United finishes its DIA lease negotiations with Denver.
The airline has until Dec. 15 to reject or assume its airport leases, a
deadline that already has been pushed back twice.


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