According to USA Today, a “low fare airline” is about to announce a significant increase in operations at Washington Dulles. The article goes on to say that the airline in question will be Frontier. From the article:

And early reports coming out of Cincinnati suggest that Frontier Airlines may be the carrier preparing to announced a Dulles expansion. The Cincinnati Enquirer says it has learned that Frontier today will announce new service between Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International and Washington Dulles. The carrier will offer four weekly flights a week on that route, perhaps foreshadowing a bigger Dulles expansion announcement by Frontier later this morning.

As a former Washingtonian who remembers the days of Independence Air, a low fare airline’s arrival at Dulles could be a big development. While this is all speculation until the service is actually announced later this morning, the impact on fares overall at Dulles will be interesting. I haven’t priced United out of Dulles for travel in a long time, but I can’t imagine that this will not have some impact. Wonder what United will do in response to the first real low-fare competition at Dulles since the “Fly I” days?

-MJ, May 13, 2014