Frontier Airlines Airbus A319.  Photo retrieved from Wikipedia.  

BLOOMINGTON — Less than a month before AirTran ceases its low-cost, non-stop services at the Central Illinois Regional Airport, Frontier Airlines will start a low-cost, non-stop service at the airport.

Denver-based Frontier Airlines recently announced that it plans to operate a direct service between the CIRA and Denver International Airport four days each week beginning in May. Starting May 18, Frontier, a low-cost airline, will provide a 99-seat Embraer 190 aircraft that will depart the CIRA at 6:50 p.m. and arrive at Denver International Airport at 7:55 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. On those same days, the jet aircraft will depart Denver International Airport at 3:10 p.m. and arrive at CIRA at 6:15 p.m.
It will be the first time in over a decade that an airline has provided a westward service from the CIRA.
“The nice thing about Frontier is it brings us a new direct service to Denver and all of the connecting flights west, which is a great thing,” said Director of the CIRA Carl Olson. “Plus they have the added benefit of being the low-fare carrier.”
Frontier Airlines once operated routes between CIRA and Denver International Airport with a stop in Omaha, Neb. When they ceased that service in 2001, the Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority began their efforts to bring the airline back to CIRA.
“The folks at CIRA have had conversations for years with Frontier, ever since they left,” said CEO and President of the McLean County Chamber of Commerce Charlie Moore. “The reason they left to begin with was we were filling a 100 percent of the seats allotted to us to Denver, but there was a stop in Omaha and Omaha was not filling there seats. Therefore, Frontier deemed it a non-viable route.”
In November, when they heard AirTran, a low-cost airline and subsidiary of Southwest Airlines, would was going to cease operations at CIRA, the Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority increased its efforts to bring Frontier Airlines to the airport.
“We’ve had conversations with Frontier Airlines for a very long time,” said Olson. “Conversations really kind of stepped up last summer. Once Southwest made the decision to pull AirTran out of here in November, discussions between Frontier and the airport authority really kicked up into high gear in November.”
In January, the Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority asked the McLean County Chamber of Commerce to help them bring Frontier Airlines back to CIRA.
“The Airport Authority approached the Chamber of Commerce in early January, reported to them what steps the airport had been taking to replace air service, what opportunities existed,” said Olson. “There’s some things that they (chamber of commerce) can do that the Airport Authority can’t do that well because of FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) policy. So we asked the Chamber if they would lead a community initiative, which would complement what the Airport Authority was doing.”
In response to the Airport Authority’s request, the McLean County Chamber of Commerce formed the Community Air Service Initiative that raised over $450,000 in donations from the Town of Normal, City of Bloomington, County of McLean, AFNI, Inc., State Farm Insurance, Country Insurance, McDonald’s Corp., Fox and Hounds Hair Salon and Day Spa, Bloomington-Normal Convention and Visitors Bureau, Economic Development Council for the Bloomington-Normal Area, McLean County Chamber of Commerce and Illinois Wesleyan University for a risk mitigation account.
The chamber of commerce used the funds in the risk mitigation account as “guaranteed revenue,” while negotiating with Frontier Airlines. If Frontier Airlines lost money while operating at the CIRA, the funds in the risk mitigation account would compensate them for the money they lost.
“That (risk mitigation account) got Frontier certainly much quicker than we would have otherwise,” said Olson.
Introductory fares begin at $80 each way for Denver-Bloomington-Normal flights if booked by February 29, 2012 for travel through mid-June.
The Embraer 190 features STRETCH seating with an additional 5 to 7 inches of legroom on every flight and also offers onboard Wi-Fi service from Gogo.
Currently, AirTran operates non-stop flights between the CIRA and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as well as non-stop flights between the CIRA and Orlando International Airport, accounting for around 40 percent of the enplanements at the Bloomington-Normal airport. AirTran will cease its operations at CIRA on June 3, 2012.