Frontier to start Las Vegas-St. Louis nonstop flights

Denver-based Frontier Airlines, remaking itself as a deep-discount air carrier, announced Tuesday that it will start nonstop service between St. Louis and Las Vegas three times a week in January.

The airline is introducing the route with the one-day Tuesday sale of a limited number of seats for $21. An introductory $78 fare also is being sold through Monday.

St. Louis flights will begin Jan. 8 and operate Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Frontier has been an established hub-and-spoke style airline using Denver International Airport as its hub. As the airline has redefined itself in the past year, it has introduced several new point-to-point routes to take advantage of limited competition.

Frontier recently introduced a nonstop route between Las Vegas and Cincinnati to complete with Allegiant Air. On the St. Louis route, it will compete with Southwest Airlines, which averages four daily flights, operating from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport on twin-engine Airbus A320 series aircraft.

Unlike most deep discount carriers, Frontier provides the option of pricing with lower fares and numerous ancillary fees or a more traditional bundled fare package.

Frontier currently offers an average six daily flights to and from Las Vegas with nonstop routes to Denver, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Washington’s Dulles International Airport.

Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.Contact reporter Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893.