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Originally Posted by Deek1978
Saw that St George will receive a $500,000 grant to help attract air service to Denver. The grant will go towards waiving terminal fees, etc. To lure in a new air carrier. The article on KSL.com suggested that it will be either United or Frontier airlines, however, I personally think it'll be Frontier. St George currently offers a daily flight to LA that connects with United Flights there. I wouldn't see the need or the desire for United to offer a second connecting flight out of STG. IMHO
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Either one is possible, and I actually like the prospects for United.
Frontier has been adding new destinations like crazy the past few months (and dropping a lot of service elsewhere). A lot of the new destinations are smaller cities like St. George where they are adding just a few flights per week. They are changing up their business model to try to deal better with the competitive landscape in Denver where they are struggling to keep up with Southwest and United.
But keep in mind that United could open SGU-DEN service with minimal investment. SkyWest already handles the SLC and LAX flights there, and it would be very easy for them to service a flight to DEN. It might even make United's operations in SGU more efficient and cost-effective to have more flights out of SGU. So while Frontier would have to make an investment in getting the ground staff and terminal facilities they need to run a flight, United already has everything in place. SGU is connected to the United network via LAX, and there are a lot of connections available there for the west coast and major eastern cities, but they can offer connections throughout the country from DEN. Delta dominates the SGU market right now with connections via SLC. United could really change the landscape by adding DEN. The question is if United sees enough of a market in SGU to make it worth competing.