Frontier Ditches Jetbridges at DEN

[Tucker_Ryan]

Well this is some more Frontier news, theres been a lot recently. The airline unveiled a new plan to build a new 14 gate ground building to house their flights in Denver. The new area would allow for quicker turnaround times and would allow the airline to grow in the airport. The airline says that many airlines do it internationally and have seen good results. It will be interesting to see how this ends up going in the long run.\

The terminal will be attached to terminal A and will have some nice features for passengers like outlets and food options. The terminal will use both airstairs and switchback ramps in order to use both the front and back doors of the planes. This will in theory reduce the amount of boarding time by half.

In my opinion this is kinda dumb, the airline is based in Denver, an absolutely freezing destination during many parts of the year. The ground experience for passengers flying Frontier will decrease dramatically in this case. In my opinion if Frontier wants to expand in Denver they should keep some or all of their current gates in addition to the new building. I see the reasoning behind the move but I just don’t like it. One thing i’ve seen from many Europeans is they like how the US has jetbridges almost everywhere. This is a move in the opposite direction. Also the end of terminal A is a long walk from any of the security checkpoints which is another downside of this plan, even though it wont be unique to DEN. We will just have to see how this all pans out.

Pictures from DEN airport:

Source:

Frontier Airlines Looks To Ditch Jetbridges At Denver International Airport

[Jason_hege]

Interesting it’s like United regional gates at DEN they do park at stair gates at DEN

[Ksisky]

@Tucker_Ryan

The ground experience for passengers flying Frontier will decrease dramatically in this case.

As someone who has waited almost an hour on a frontier plane to get a gate in DEN, I could really care less.

[Tucker_Ryan]

In this instance, yes I see what you mean. They had to get us out of the gate once which meant like 30 people missed our flight. Then we sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes. I mean the doors closed on time so it wasn’t the airlines fault but TSA took forever at 4am

[MathAviation7]

I think this would be a better idea at another US airport, in an area with a more temperate climate. While boarding with stairs is more common in European airports, most parts of Europe have a temperate year-round climate. I personally do not mind air stairs that much, as long as the weather is nice.

[Tucker_Ryan]

I agree, like frontiers operations at Trenton, but still I like how The United States has managed to keep jetbridge boarding at most airports and this is a step in the wrong direction.

[MathAviation7]

That is definitely one of the nice things about US domestic travel, along with real business class seating (unlike intra-European business class where they just block a middle seat). I think this is just a small change for one airline, and I don’t see this becoming a major trend. After all the infrastructure for jet bridges exists already.