A long-time airline out of Akron-Canton Airport will fly out of Cleveland Hopkins Airport instead.

Frontier Airlines announced that it is "consolidating" all Northeast Ohio operations at Hopkins starting next January.

Akron-Canton Airport spokesperson Kristie Van Auken says that the move is expected to have "minimal impact" on the local airport, for one, because of a recent major addition to the airport's roster.

"Customers have a lot of exceptional westbound options from Akron-Canton Airport," Van Auken tells AkronNewsNow.com, "primarily aboard Southwest Airlines, which also flies non-stop to Denver."

Van Auken says Frontier did well at Akron-Canton, and passenger loads were not a reason for its "business decision".

"93 percent of all of their seats available, all year long, have been full," Van Auken says, "so this is not about customer demand."  She calls Southwest a "stronger" partner.

Southwest Airlines also owns AirTran Airways, making it the dominant carrier at Akron-Canton.  For now, AirTran is operating as a separate subsidiary of Southwest, with its own flights at Akron-Canton.

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(Frontier Airlines - news release)

DENVER, September 17, 2012 - Frontier Airlines today announced new nonstop service between its Denver, Colo. (DEN) hub and Cleveland, Ohio (CLE) with four weekly flights beginning Jan. 9, 2013. To celebrate the new service, Frontier is offering fares as low as $80* each way available for purchase through Sept. 30, 2012, only at FlyFrontier.com.

“We’ve seen incredible demand for low-fare, high-value nonstop service to Denver throughout the northeast Ohio region,” said Daniel Shurz, Frontier’s senior vice president, commercial. “Northeast Ohioans should now look for our low-fare service to Denver and the west from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Customers will always find our best fares at FlyFrontier.com.”

“We are excited to welcome Frontier Airlines service to Denver for the first time,” said Airport Director Ricky Smith. “Frontier currently provides service from CLE to Punta Cana and Cancun through a partnership with Apple Vacations. This new service to the Rocky Mountain region is a great added bonus for Cleveland travelers.”

Beginning Jan. 9, 2013, Frontier will consolidate all northeastern Ohio operations at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Frontier already offers service from Cleveland Hopkins to Cancun, Mexico, and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Following is the schedule for Frontier’s Cleveland to Denver service:

Denver-Cleveland (beginning Jan. 9, 2013)

Route

Departs Arrives Frequency Aircraft
DEN-CLE 4:30 p.m. 9:20 p.m. Wed/Thurs/Fri/Sun A320
CLE-DEN 5:50 p.m. 7:20 p.m. Mon/Thurs/Fri/Sun A320

The new Denver service will operate on 168-seat Airbus 320 aircraft – featuring 30 channels of DIRECTV® service available at every seat. Additionally, these flights will offer six rows of comfortable STRETCH seating with an additional five to seven inches of legroom, and the airline’s SELECT seating product. The airline’s website, FlyFrontier.com, offers its guaranteed lowest fares and is the only place seat assignments are available at the time of booking, including the airline’s popular STRETCH and SELECT seating options.

For more information or to purchase a Frontier flight, visit FlyFrontier.com.

Frontier Airlines is a wholly owned subsidiary of Republic Airways Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:RJET).