The final Frontier: Budget carrier to pull out of Paine

Published 3:28 pm Thursday, December 18, 2025

EVERETT — Frontier Airlines will no longer operate from Paine Field after its final departure on Jan. 5, a Frontier spokesperson confirmed Thursday.

The move comes less than seven months after Frontier marked its first flight from Paine under much fanfare on June 2. The celebration included water cannons, a ribbon-cutting and plenty of green and yellow balloons.

“It is fair to say the passenger demand wasn’t sufficient to maintain the service,” said Frontier spokesperson Jennifer De La Cruz in an email.

Frontier’s departure leaves Alaska Airlines as the only carrier at Paine Field. United Airlines pulled its two daily flights to Denver in 2021.

De La Cruz left open the possibility of a future return.

“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,” she said in another email.

Frontier’s website does not show any flights from Paine Field after a Jan. 5 departure to Denver.

Frontier began service on June 2 with flights three times a week to Denver, Phoenix and Las Vegas. But, by the beginning of December, flights to Las Vegas and Phoenix were reduced to once a week, according to Cirium, a flight data analytics company.

Cirium said the last Frontier flights from Paine Field to Las Vegas and Phoenix departed on Dec. 15.

Frontier flight schedules show service to Denver for December and early January is limited to twice a week until the final Jan. 5 departure.

The end of Frontier service comes after Alaska Airlines officials announced on Thursday that it will add a daily flight on June 10 from Paine Field to Portland, Oregon.

The first flight that took off from Paine Field in March 2019 was to Portland, but Alaska discontinued the service in May 2022, Smith said.

Alaska Airlines offered 18 flights a day at Paine Field after beginning passenger service in March 2019.

The airline’s schedule now shows 10 to 11 flights a day, all in the Western U.S., except for Hawaii. Alaska’s longest flight, to Honolulu, was reduced to seasonal service in early 2024.

Smith said Friday the new Alaska flight was a positive for the airport.

“Alaska Airlines’ announcement that it will resume nonstop service between Paine Field and Portland underscores the market’s continued strength,” Smith said. “While Frontier has made strategic changes in recent weeks, including its exit from Paine Field, demand remains strong, and travelers will continue to have access to the same destinations through Alaska.”

Alaska offers direct flights from Paine Field to Phoenix and Las Vegas, but not Denver.

Smith said that the Alaska flights are mostly full and that Propeller officials are in discussions with other airlines about starting at Paine, but declined to name specifics.

Ray Lane, a spokesman for Alaska Airlines, said in September that the airline continues to invest in Paine Field but added that flight schedules had been revised to reflect passenger demand.

Last year, Paine Field saw 580,000 passengers depart or arrive on planes, according to Propeller statistics. That’s down from the more than 1 million passengers who used the terminal in its first year of operation in 2019. Smith has said he expects a slight increase in 2025.

Frontier officials touted adding Paine Field to their route map at a press conference at Paine Field in March. The airline was already flying from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

“We believe there is a strong unmet demand for low fares in this region and, to be honest, for most people in this area, Paine Field is the most convenient choice,” said Stephen Shaw, senior manager of network planning for the airline, at the press conference.

The Paine Field pullout comes as Frontier is in financial distress. In the first nine months of 2025, through Sept. 30, the airport reported it lost $19o million.

On Dec. 15, Frontier announced the departure of CEO Barry Biffle, who had led the airline since Dec. 2016. No reason was given for his sudden exit. He was replaced by the airline’s president, James Dempsey.

The next day, wire service Bloomberg News reported that Frontier was in merger talks with Spirit Airlines, which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Frontier spokesperson De La Cruz declined to comment on the merger report.

Frontier is known as an ultra-low-cost carrier.

A problem for the airline in recent years is that mainstream carriers, Alaska, Delta, United and American, have been aggressively marketing their own basic, no-frills economy fares, taking away Frontier’s passengers, said Brian Sumers, an aviation journalist who writes The Airline Observer on Substack.

Sumers said Frontier used to be able to undercut its largest competitors on price and still make money.

“But over time with basic economy, the big three or four airlines have gotten very good at competing with Frontier,” he said.

Sumers said Frontier “has been on a kick” to find new markets in a strategy to compete with the bigger airlines.

“They say, let’s see if we can make money, and if they don’t, they pull out as quickly as they can,” he said.

In May, Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers signed an executive order aimed at expanding the three-gate Paine Field terminal and increasing air service at Paine Field Airport.

The order creates a larger vision for the airport that Somers said was an alternative to the crowded Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Somers’ order instructs county departments to begin the planning process for expanding roads, runways and other airport improvements. The long-range project was estimated to cost around $300 million in 2024.

But a terminal expansion can only proceed if Propeller Airports agrees to it and provides funding. In a unique private-public partnership, Propeller Airports financed the terminal at Paine Field and has total control of its future.

Smith has said an expansion will happen, but he declined to say when.

Randy Diamond: 425-339-3097; randy.diamond@heraldnet.com.