Frontier Airlines announced today they’re going to buy 10 of the 74 seat Dash 8 Q400 turboprops made by Bombardier. They’re also looking for more regional jets to be operated by a partner airline in the near future.
This is good news for fans of Frontier, because it means expansion. Those Q400s are good for short to mid haul flights. I’m guessing you’ll see them flying around the Rockies to many a ski resort from its Denver base. It’ll give United a little competition and probably help bring fares down. Besides, it’s a pretty cool plane.
I’m guessing this is Frontier’s new strategy to avoid competing with Southwest. Southwest entered Denver recently and they’ve been expanding quickly. With only 737s, you won’t see Southwest flying to places those turboprops can fly. It means Frontier can expand and shift their traffic away from dealing with Southwest directly. We’ll see if it works.
