Frontier president says city’s hangar offer is ‘very good'

Colorado Springs is on “the short list of candidates” to become the site of a Frontier Airlines maintenance hangar, the carrier’s new top executive said Wednesday.

Sean Menke, who became Frontier’s president and chief executive Friday, said the Denver-based airline hasn’t eliminated from consideration any of the seven cities it’s looking at. Still, he said, Colorado Springs “has put a very good proposal on the table.”

Frontier said last month the facility could cost $40 million and employ 350 within two years. The facility would replace a hangar at Denver International Airport that Frontier leases per month from Continental Airlines.

Colorado Springs put together an incentive package that includes tax breaks that could be offered to any airline that wants to build a maintenance facility. Menke said those tax breaks could be worth “millions of dollars” to Frontier and are a key part of the city’s bid.

“When you compare it to what we pay in other places, including Denver, it is significant,” Menke said. “It is a point of negotiation. We will have discussions about it with the mayor (of Denver) and the people at DIA.”

The Colorado Springs City Council tentatively agreed in 2004 to eliminate sales tax on aircraft-parts purchases of more than $2 million a year for a SkyWest Airlines maintenance hangar that opened in August.

Menke lived in the Springs for several years in the mid-1990s as a marketing executive for now-defunct and locally based Western Pacific Airlines. He said that experience made him aware of the city’s “supportive business climate.”

He was in the Springs to learn more about the city’s proposal and to meet airport brass before selecting a location by year’s end. Frontier has also had bids for the facility from DIA and airports in Broomfield, Fort Collins, Greeley, Pueblo and Watkins.

Airport officials say luring maintenance facilities attracts airline service because carriers add flights in a city with a facility to get more aircraft to it. SkyWest has added flights from Colorado Springs to several cities since opening a temporary maintenance facility hangar in 2004.

Menke said Frontier may begin flights to Colorado Springs even if it builds its maintenance hangar elsewhere, but declined to say how quickly it would do so. The Springs would be a “nice fit,” he said, for Frontier’s planned Lynx Aviation turboprop operation.

“I believe there will be opportunities other than (the maintenance hangar) to serve Colorado Springs,” Menke said. “I know Colorado Springs can support a certain level of service and it is definitely something that we have and will continue to evaluate.”

Frontier had planned to launch Lynx on Oct. 1 with Bombardier Q-400 aircraft. The airline has not secured federal clearance for the unit to begin operations, and the plane’s Canadian manufacturer Wednesday asked that some of the aircraft be grounded after one skidded off a runway.

Menke said Frontier will decide next week whether to fly those routes with its own jets or aircraft from its partners, Republic Airways and Horizon Air.

QUOTABLE

Sean Menke, who took over Friday as president and chief executive of Denver-based Frontier Airlines, talked about now-defunct Western Pacific Airlines, which was based in Colorado Springs, during a wide-ranging interview on Wednesday. Menke was a marketing executive with WestPac. Some excerpts:

- On what he learned at WestPac: “There are a number of things the company did right and a number we could have done better, including rapid growth in the marketplace that created a lot of problems. One thing that happened was rapid growth attracted significant competition that entered the marketplace and impacted our ability to be profitable.”

- On whether Colorado Springs can support another airline hub: “It is difficult for Colorado Springs to support a hub because of its proximity to Denver and the size of the city. The size limits your ability to generate local traffic. You can connect people anywhere, but you need local traffic to generate higher fares to sustain the operation.”

- On his biggest challenge at Frontier: “Right now in the Denver market, Southwest’s entry is the biggest challenge. United is still the dominant player. It impacts your ability to sustain a profit and grow your market. It is important to find other places to fly that are profitable.”

- On his primary focus at Frontier: “I’m focusing on being a stand-alone carrier. There is something special about this airline and the level of service it provides. We need a sound strategy to expand beyond the Denver marketplace like we have in Mexico, Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) and Memphis (Tenn.)”