Frontier Airlines will begin nonstop service from Orlando, Florida, to Medellín on December 10, 2026, to Bogotá on December 14 and to Cartagena on December 19, the first South American routes in the ultra-low-cost carrier’s history. The US airline, a unit of Frontier Group Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: ULCC), announced the service on September 10 in Orlando, where the flights will depart from Orlando International Airport, while Colombia’s Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo (Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, MinCIT) and the export and tourism promotion agency ProColombia presented it the same day at an event in Bogotá. All three routes remain subject to government approval.

According to the schedule Frontier published, Medellín will get daily flights from the start. Bogotá opens with six weekly flights and moves to daily service on March 6, 2027, while Cartagena gets one flight per week. The initial operation totals 14 weekly frequencies, rising to 15 once Bogotá goes daily, according to MinCIT. Frontier will fly the routes with Airbus (Euronext Paris: AIR; Frankfurt: AIR; BME: AIR) A320neo aircraft, according to AeroRoutes. To launch the service, the airline offered introductory fares starting at $99 USD to Bogotá, $129 USD to Cartagena and $169 USD to Medellín on tickets bought by September 16 for travel on select days between January 14 and April 5, 2027.

Spirit’s exit

Spirit Airlines flew Orlando-Bogotá and Orlando-Medellín through its final weeks of operation, while its Orlando-Cartagena route last operated in February 2025, according to Aviation Week. Spirit stopped flying on May 2, 2026, after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection twice, El Universal reported, and Colombia’s Aeronáutica Civil (Civil Aeronautics, Aerocivil) estimated at the time that about 10,000 passengers in Colombia were affected by the abrupt shutdown, according to Vanguardia. By then, Spirit’s only remaining Cartagena service was a twice-weekly Fort Lauderdale route, according to El Universal.

Frontier will face competition on two of the three routes. Avianca and LATAM Airlines Group (NYSE: LTM; Santiago Stock Exchange: LTM) already fly Orlando-Bogotá, and Avianca is the only carrier on Orlando-Medellín, according to OAG schedule data cited by Aviation Week. The publication reported that two-way seats between Orlando and Colombia fell 14.8% year over year to 61,220 for the month of August 2026, and that Orlando had no nonstop service to Cartagena.

Tyri Squyres, Frontier’s vice president of public and consumer affairs, said in the airline’s announcement that the carrier sees “strong, unmet demand for low-cost travel between Orlando and Colombia.”

Four cities requested, three announced

The announcement covers less than Frontier asked for. In an application to Aerocivil made public in August, the airline requested seven weekly round trips from Orlando to each of four cities (Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena and Cali), for a total of 28, using Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft, according to Portafolio. The filing sought traffic rights up to the fourth freedom of the air, which allows a carrier to fly passengers, mail and cargo between its home country and another country. Portafolio reported that the request was under review by Aerocivil’s Dirección de Transporte Aéreo y Asuntos Aerocomerciales (Directorate of Air Transport and Air Commerce Affairs). Cali was not part of the September 10 announcement, and neither Frontier nor the Colombian government has said whether a Cali route is planned.

Frontier is based in Denver, Colorado, and Orlando is one of its crew bases, according to Portafolio. The company carried 33.2 million passengers in 2025, according to its fourth-quarter results, and had a fleet of 165 Airbus single-aisle aircraft as of June 30, 2026, according to its second-quarter results. Frontier’s network covers the US, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, according to Portafolio. From Orlando, Colombian travelers will be able to connect to more than 50 destinations in the Caribbean, according to MinCIT, citing the airline.

The government’s connectivity push

The US is already the international market with the most air connectivity to Colombia, with 350 weekly frequencies, carrying more than 61,700 seats, to 12 US cities, according to MinCIT. Commerce, Industry and Tourism Minister Mauricio Gómez Amín tied the new routes to President Abelardo De La Espriella’s strategy of expanding international air connectivity and making tourism a driver of economic and regional development. “Frontier’s arrival in Colombia means more than new routes: it means more possibilities for travelers, businesspeople and investors to connect with our country,” Gómez Amín said.

Samuel Bluman Levy, president of ProColombia, pointed to coordination between the public and private sectors in bringing the carrier in: “Bringing in a new airline is not just opening a route; it is opening business, tourism and connection opportunities for thousands of Colombians and international travelers.”

Daniel Camejo, a vice president at Frontier, said in the ministry’s announcement that the three cities will be the airline’s first destinations in the country and its first move into South America.

“Colombia is a strategic market, and this is just the beginning of what we want to build and develop here.”

— Daniel Camejo, vice president, Frontier Airlines

The US accounts for more than 23% of air bookings to Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport, making it the capital’s largest source of visitors, according to tourism observatory figures cited by Ángela Garzón, director of the Instituto Distrital de Turismo (District Tourism Institute, IDT), in a statement published by the city government. Garzón said the Orlando route connects the capital with the southeastern US in a little more than four hours of flight time, and that Bogotá closed 2025 with close to 1.9 million foreign visitors.

Headline photo: Officials and airline representatives attend the September 10, 2026, presentation of Frontier Airlines’ Orlando routes in Bogotá. (Photo courtesy MinCIT / Lincoln Acevedo)