COS Post lowest passenger loads in a decade. F9 fault??

Passenger traffic at COS fell in February to its lowest point in more than a decade as Frontier Airlines began reducing service before its April 7 exit from the Springs.
Traffic in February declined 6.3 percent from a year earlier to 50,866, the lowest monthly total since at least the mid-1990s and the first monthly drop since May. Passenger numbers were down on four of the five airlines serving the Springs; Frontier's traffic was up 9.3 percent even as it cut flights.
February typically is the slowest month for air travel in the Springs. Traffic for the first two months of the year is down 0.9 percent from the same period last year to 108,483.
Denver-based Frontier had made Colorado Springs a "focus city" last year with nonstop flights to four western U.S. cities, becoming the airport's third-largest carrier. Frontier pulled the plug on the experiment in January, saying it had to discount its fares too much to operate the flights profitably.

Keep in mind, COS is VERY close to DEN. While the residents there are generally pretty well-to-do, if fares are much lower out of DEN where there may be more competition, they'll fly out of there. I did a study for a geography capstone course that had a bit of a different purpose, but it had a pretty similar situation with being so close to MSP.