by Maria Polletta - Aug. 6, 2012 12:20 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Frontier Airlines on Monday announced it will become Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport's third passenger carrier in November, joining Allegiant Air and Spirit Airlines in offering air service at the Southeast Valley facility.
Daily Denver-to-Mesa service is expected to arrive at Gateway in early afternoon. The plane would make a return flight to Denver in about two hours.
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Photos: Gateway Airport
The announcement, which reportedly followed about a year of negotiations, marks a significant step up in Gateway's status as a reliever airport, according to airport and local government officials.
"The third airline ... especially a hub airline, we think is a game-changer," Mesa Mayor Scott Smith said. "You have three airlines and you're not a novelty anymore. You're legitimate."
The addition of Denver-based Frontier will triple the number of destinations reachable via Gateway, as the Denver-based airline serves more than 80 U.S. cities, plus Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Mexico.
Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air, which began serving Gateway in 2007, and Florida-based Spirit Airlines, which came to Mesa this year, are known for bargain fares. Allegiant generally offers point-to-point service to less-traveled destinations, while Spirit serves major cities. Frontier, while still considered low-cost, is a more traditional airline that flies to many major markets.
Although Gateway already offers service to international destinations, current routes are often roundabout and lengthy, involving multiple stops.
Smith said, "The objective was to make Gateway Airport a one-stop destination," meaning passengers could get from Gateway to "anywhere through one change of plane."
With Frontier, "I can literally go in, change planes (in Denver), and I can be in Boston, I can be in New York, I can be in Chicago, I can be in Mexico. Or I can go to Denver and pick up a United (Airlines) flight that's going to Germany or to somewhere else," he said. "Once I get to the hub, my options expand almost exponentially."
Scot Rigby, a lead Mesa economic-development official, said the Mesa-Denver daytime travel schedule, once it begins, will be an opportunity to catch business-travel clientele in addition to leisure travelers.
"For us, that's a big thing for businesses that are here in this Mesa market or the East Valley -- for businesses now to be able to look at Gateway as a viable option for their employees to get out, as well as their vendors to go back in," Rigby said. "It means shorter time from the gate to their doorstep, or from their doorstep to their client's doorstep."
Intel Corp., for instance, has facilities in both Chandler and the greater Denver area.
Frontier will be the first airline to serve both Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and Gateway. Southeast Valley officials believe the move speaks to the area's value as its own, expanding market.
Mesa spokesman Steven Wright compared Gateway's evolving trajectory to that of Los Angeles-area reliever airports, including those in Ontario and Burbank.
Gateway has barely been able to keep up with growth over the last few years and expects to serve 1.2 million passengers in 2012.
Gateway executives in June released a $1.5 billion, 20-year expansion plan for the airport after projections showed that its existing terminal would reach capacity three years earlier than expected, in 2014. The terminal will be expanded to eight gates just before Frontier begins service Nov. 15, immediately followed by construction to bring the terminal up to 10 gates.
Airport officials recently got approval to accelerate some components of the renovation, including the creation of more ticket-counter space and relocation of the security area, which also will help accommodate the arrival of Frontier.
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