A little less than a year after abandoning a federal grant to support new air service to New York, the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority has filed an application to support a proposed route between Toledo Express Airport and Denver.

While the $750,000 grant the agency has requested from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Small Communities Air Service program is nearly twice the $400,000 that attracted no successful carriers between 2006 and 2010, the port's application states a belief that it has a stronger case now because Frontier Airlines has endorsed it, though without committing to fly the route.

The application also notes that Denver is not a "slot-controlled" airport, a condition at the three major New York airports port officials believe crippled their hopes of developing service with the previous grant.

"There's nothing imminent," port President Paul Toth said late last month as the agency prepared the grant application, filed Tuesday. "But we do think it's an opportunity." 

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