Sep. 6--Southwest Airlines is starting service to Denver, opening more destinations west for travelers out of Wichita's Eisenhower Airport.
Sunday marks the beginning of the lower-fare airline route, which will offer daily service to the Mile High City and connections to more vacation destinations including Steamboat Springs and other popular sites for outdoor recreation, said Valerie Wise, business development manager at Eisenhower.
It's a reflection of changing travel patterns since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Wise said.
"The leisure traveler is flying, not the business traveler," Wise said. "Leisure travelers are looking for outdoor, nature type of areas. So you're going to see the airlines add service to those types of destinations."
Airlines are restructuring their schedules to better serve secondary markets such as Palm Springs, Calif., Eugene, Ore. and Billings Mont., she said.
"Skiing should be popular this year,' she said.
Fear of catching COVID-19 on a plane devastated the air transportation industry and travel is still down by about 70% nationwide compared to 2019, Wise said. Wichita was down about 60% in August, she said.
On the upside, Friday was the best day Eisenhower's had since the pandemic started, with 1,663 passengers going through the airport, Wise said. And the addition of a flight to Denver should benefit consumers, she added.
"What the value (to passengers) is of Southwest going through Denver is it's going to provide low-fare competition to many western destinations," Wise said. "Frontier is an ultra-low-cost carrier. They only fly twice a week to Denver with limited connections. So (Southwest) competing with United through Denver is going to keep fares competitive."
At the same time, Southwest will be temporarily suspending two direct routes, serving Phoenix and Las Vegas. Those destinations will still be available through Denver, Wise said.
"The Phoenix route will come back in January and Las Vegas in March," she said.
Prices for the new Denver service will generally be lower than United and higher than bare-bones service offered by Frontier.
The three airlines' websites showed United was the most expensive with the lowest fare for a round trip about $200.
Southwest's lowest regular fare is about $120, while Frontier's is $87.
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