Frontier Airlines cancels three flights permanently, offers refunds

Since launching out of Denver in 1998, budget carrier Frontier Airlines eventually expanded to serve over 100 destinations in the U.S. as well as a number of international cities in the tropics.

While it grew its network by flying between smaller cities often not lucrative enough for mainstream airlines, Frontier has in recent years made a major push to expand internationally across Mexico and the Caribbean.

At the start of the week, the airline announced five new flights to tropical destinations like Nassau, St. Maarten, and San José Del Cabo from Atlanta. A few days later, it followed with new plans to start flying Guatemala City and San Salvador from Houston, all before the end of the year.

But even amid such expansion, Frontier has also been exiting markets it deems unprofitable. As first reported by local outlet HeraldNet, the carrier is canceling all three of its routes out of Paine Field Airport (PAE) in northwestern Washington State just seven months after launching.

Frontier says demand in Paine Field "not sufficient enough to maintain the service"

The three affected routes into the city of Everett, 30 miles north of Seattle, had been running twice a week each from Denver International (DEN), Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX), and Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas, since Frontier entered this new market in June 2025, to much fanfare about flying directly into the suburb.

At the time, Frontier Senior Manager of Network Planning Stephen Shaw spoke of "strong unmet demand for low fares in this region [...] and for most people in this area."

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"It is fair to say the passenger demand wasn't sufficient to maintain the service," Frontier spokesperson Jennifer De La Cruz told HeraldNet in a statement. "[...] We greatly value our partnership with Paine Field and, as with any market departure, we will continue to evaluate a potential return at some point in the future."

Locals were the first to notice that tickets for the route were no longer available for sale on Frontier's website. The last flights are scheduled to run on January 5, 2026, and the market exit leaves Alaska Airlines as the only commercial airline to serve Paine Field.

Frontier flight out of Everett already booked? Here is what you need to do

For affected travelers, Frontier has a policy in which any ticket within seven days of the travel date can be automatically returned for a full refund to the original form of payment.

This applies to travelers with the lowest fare who cancel for personal reasons, as well as planned cancellations that are part of network changes or otherwise within the airline's control.

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Because the last flights are still two weeks away, anyone with travel on them booked beyond that can either initiate the refund automatically on the Frontier website or wait to be contacted by the airline.

"Refunds will be issued to the original form of payment either upon request or automatically after the scheduled departure date," Frontier writes of its policy. "Refunds will be processed within seven business days."

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