Fort Lauderdale airport to get new service but will also lose service as well this summer

Mike Diamond, Palm Beach Post
Updated ·2 min read

Frontier Airlines will offer nonstop flights from Fort Lauderdale to Cincinnati and Puerto Rico starting May 16 and June 1, respectively. The flights will be offered four times a week.

Frontier will fly to Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport. It is Puerto Rico's largest airport, located about 25 miles from San Juan.

Frontier says the new service is part of “a massive expansion” of its routes with a focus on underpriced and underserved airports. The low-fare carrier will launch nonstop service on 17 new routes from multiple airports across the U.S. and internationally in May. The new Cincinnati and Puerto Rico service from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) is part of that expansion.

Frontier Airlines will soon be offering non-stop service from Fort Lauderdale Airport (FLL) to Cincinnati and Puerto Rico.
Frontier Airlines will soon be offering non-stop service from Fort Lauderdale Airport (FLL) to Cincinnati and Puerto Rico.

“More destinations and greater frequency means a larger number of consumers will soon be able to enjoy Frontier’s convenient, and affordable low fares," the airline said in a recent press release. Frontier will also offer nonstop service to Raleigh-Durham in North Carolina from Miami International Airport beginning April 10.

The additional service comes at a time when South Florida airports are reporting record passenger levels.

More: Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami airports awarded $84M in federal money for upgrades

Frontier has significantly increased its passenger count at Fort Lauderdale since the pre-COVID year of 2019, rising to 700,000 in 2023. That represents a nearly 180% increase in that time, the highest percentage of any airline flying from there. And the new routes to Cincinnati and Puerto Rico are expected to only increase its passenger count.

For more details, visit the Frontier Airlines' website, flyfrontier.com.

Meanwhile, FLL will be sustaining a rare loss this summer when Southwest Airlines moves most of its international flights from FLL to Orlando International Airport beginning in June. The carrier averages six to nine daily international departures to seven destinations in the Caribbean. Those flights, currently offered at FLL, will instead be offered out of Orlando.

And in January, Spirit Airlines stopped flying in and out of Denver. One of the airports serviced by Spirit was FLL. Spirit reported that the flights to Denver "underperformed."

Spirit is struggling to cope with the grounding of its  planes with Pratt & Whitney engines. They must be inspected by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ensure their safety. Parts of the engines need to be replaced, limiting the usage of planes while repairs are made. The result is an elimination of routes.

Mike Diamond is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. He covers Palm Beach County government and transportation. You can reach him at mdiamond@pbpost.com. Help support local journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Fort Lauderdale airport: Good news and bad new on the new route front