Orlando’s main airport just scored a pair of new ultra-low-cost routes, giving budget-conscious travelers even more ways to get in and out of Central Florida. As demand for leisure trips keeps climbing, another discount carrier is quietly adding seats — and eye-catching sale fares — ahead of the spring travel season.
Instead of chasing business flyers with daily schedules, these flights are clearly aimed at vacationers. Both routes will only operate a few days a week, timed around long weekends and school breaks, and will launch with rock-bottom introductory prices. One links Orlando with a beach town in Florida’s panhandle, while the other connects to a major Northeast hub that already sees plenty of traffic to and from MCO.
Frontier already has a big MCO footprint 
The carrier behind these new flights is Frontier Airlines. It’s already a major player in Orlando: from January through December 2024, Frontier ranked fourth among domestic airlines at MCO, carrying more than 5.7 million passengers and accounting for nearly 12% of the domestic market share.
With that level of presence, it isn’t hard for Frontier to slot in additional point-to-point routes. These new flights are less about building a new operation in Orlando and more about fine-tuning where the airline sends its airplanes from an airport where it already has plenty of scale.
Details of Frontier’s new (resumed) MCO routes
Here’s what Frontier has announced so far:
| New service from Orlando International Airport (MCO): | Service start: | Service frequency: | Intro fare: |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newark, N.J. (EWR) | January 21, 2026 | 3x/week | $39* |
| Pensacola, Fla. (PNS) | February 13, 2026 | 2x/week | $29* |
*Intro fares are one-way and subject to additional taxes, fees and Frontier’s usual add-ons for bags, seat selection, etc.
Pensacola: trading the long drive for a short flight
Pensacola sits in Florida’s panhandle, and getting there from Orlando by car can take most of a day. For people who want a quick beach getaway—or for friends and family visiting from that part of the state—a nonstop flight makes a lot more sense than hours on I-10 and I-75.
Frontier won’t have the route to itself. Spirit already links Orlando and Pensacola, and Breeze Airways has announced its own nonstop service between the two cities. Breeze’s flights are set to begin on March 1, 2026, operating on Thursdays and Sundays, with introductory fares starting at $59 one-way. That means by early spring, travelers could have three ultra-low-cost options on the same city pair.
Frontier’s earlier start date and lower introductory fare suggest it’s trying to grab market share quickly—especially with Spirit facing its own financial and operational challenges. For travelers, that competition could mean lower prices, at least while everyone is fighting to fill seats.
Newark: jumping into a very busy corridor
The Orlando–Newark route is already crowded. United, JetBlue and Spirit all fly between MCO and EWR. United operates multiple flights each day, using Newark as a major hub for both point-to-point and connecting passengers to domestic and international destinations. JetBlue also operates several flights daily, serving a mix of vacationers and travelers heading to the New York City area.
Into that mix, Frontier is adding a three-times-weekly service with rock-bottom introductory pricing. It’s clearly not trying to match United or JetBlue on schedule or connectivity. Instead, Frontier appears to be targeting the most price-sensitive customers—families headed to the theme parks, New Yorkers escaping winter for a few days, and anyone else whose first priority is finding the cheapest fare.
Frontier is also going directly up against Spirit on both Newark and Pensacola. With Spirit under pressure, this feels like a calculated move to scoop up some of that ultra-low-cost demand on routes that already see plenty of traffic.
Leisure-focused schedules
Another clue about Frontier’s strategy is the schedule. Both routes operate only a few times a week, which doesn’t work well for road-warrior business travelers who need multiple daily options. It does, however, line up nicely with how vacationers travel—Thursday or Friday departures, Sunday or Monday returns, and school-break timing.
Limited service also lets Frontier test the waters without committing too much capacity. If the flights sell well at higher fares after the introductory sales, the airline can always add more frequencies later. If not, it’s easier to quietly reshuffle airplanes to another market.
Bottom line
Frontier’s latest moves at Orlando add two more ultra-low-cost routes just in time for spring travel, one to Florida’s panhandle and another to a major Northeast hub. With other budget carriers already operating on both city pairs, the competition could translate into cheaper fares—at least in the short term.
If you’re flexible on travel days and don’t mind Frontier’s bare-bones service model (and all the extra fees that come with it), these new flights might offer a very inexpensive way to reach the beach or the New York City area from Orlando.
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