Frontier begin flights from Santa Rosa to Denver

Sonoma County officials are preparing to offer Frontier Airlines $1.5 million in public and private incentives to start daily round-trip flights between Denver and Santa Rosa next summer.With backing from Frontier, the county won a $650,000 grant this week from the U.S. Department of Transportation to expand service at Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport. The money is designated for a new route for Wine Country air travelers flying to and from eastern destinations.

Denver is one of the most critical hubs to connect Sonoma County to the East Coast,said county Supervisor Mike McGuire, a member of an airport committee trying to attract new carriers.However, Frontier and the county still must negotiate terms of the new flights, described initially as seasonal summer service with a single daily round-trip flight. And the shorter runways at the county airport may prove an impediment to reaching a deal, county officials acknowledged.Even so, local business leaders said Wednesday that receiving the grant is a key step forward. A similar federal grant helped persuade Horizon Air a sister company to Alaska Airlines to begin service to Sonoma County in 2007.It’s not a done deal, but this gives us the resources to go to them and say we can help guarantee your start-up, said Jonathan Coe, president and CEO of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce.