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PROVO -- One month after the Provo airport started its daily flight to and from Denver, the airport will be ready to celebrate its first completely booked flight on July 22.
Airport manager Steve Gleason said both Frontier Airlines and the airport are filling things out as far as what the price point should be to get people to choose the Provo airport, but he also said the feedback he's gotten from passenger is very good.
The number of passengers has been averaging in the 50's and 60's, but bookings are rising.
The flights have been going smoothly, with one exception - the weather in the Midwest.
"We've been showing steady increases of five to ten percent weekly," Gleason said. "It started off kind of slow but tomorrow is our first full flight and we are really excited about that."
The daily flight to Denver can hold 99 passengers and Gleason said it's important to keep the flights filling up, not only to keep the Provo flights successful, but to add additional flights in the future.
"(Frontier) likes to look at a load factor somewhere between 70 percent and 80 percent from what I understand, but a lot of that depends on what their pricing is and what their price point is," Gleason said.
He said from the operations side of the airport, the flights have been going smoothly, with one exception - the weather in the Midwest.
"A lot of thunderstorms have been blowing through in the Des Moines area that has delayed the aircraft into Denver, which (has) then backed it up and delayed it into Provo. So we've had a couple of delays on our return flights, but not many delays going out."
Gleason said for the most part, people flying out of Provo come from Utah County and areas south. However, he has seen some passengers driving down from Salt Lake County because they like the small airport feel without the long lines - and the easy parking.
