Low-cost airline «Frontier Airlines»

Frontier Airlines is an American low-cost airline headquartered in Denver. It maintains its primary hub at Denver International Airport and also operates from secondary hubs at various airports in the United States, including Hartsfield- Jackson Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Frontier Airlines currently flies to 55 domestic destinations and 6 international destinations in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala. Additionally, Frontier Airlines expands its network of operations to several cities within the states of the Western United States. United thanks to a codeshare agreement with Great Lakes Airlines.In 1993, after the departure of mainline airline Continental Airlines from its former hub at Stapleton Airport, there was a shortage of regional routes in the Denver passenger transportation market. To meet the market demand for commercial air travel from Denver, Frontier Airlines was formed on February 8, 1994, created by top managers of the former carrier of the same name, which operated in the United States market from 1950 to 1986.

The new airline began operations in July 1994 with several used Boeing 737 aircraft in its fleet. In 1999, Frontier Airlines management signed an agreement to acquire and lease Airbus A318 and Airbus A319 aircraft. The first A319 aircraft (already equipped with the DirecTV in-flight entertainment system) was delivered to the airline in 2001, at the same time the company introduced a new livery design for its own aircraft. In 2003, Frontier Airlines received the Airbus A318, thus becoming the first airline in the world to operate aircraft of this modification. In mid-2005, the company completely stopped using Boeing aircraft.

At the beginning of 2006, the airline’s management carried out a restructuring of its activities. On April 3 of the same year, the aviation holding Frontier Holdings, Inc. was formed. (FRNT), which was incorporated in the State of Delaware to take advantage of the business-friendly provisions of that state’s tax laws. The headquarters of the airline itself remained in Colorado. In November 2006, Frontier Airlines entered into a partnership agreement with low-cost airline AirTran Airways, according to which carriers recognized the terms of bonus programs to encourage frequent flyers and joined each other’s route networks, transferring passenger flows between them if necessary. The partnership agreement ended in July 2010 following the acquisition by the future owner of Frontier Airlines of regional carrier Midwest Airlines.

On January 24, 2007, Frontier Airlines received its flag carrier status from the US Department of Transportation.

In March 2007, regional airline Republic Airways began phasing out its local route partnership with carrier Horizon Air. By November of the same year, flights were taken over by Frontier Airlines, and on November 30, the partnership with Horizon Air was finally terminated. In April 2008, both airlines announced the termination of the agreement, and on June 23, all Republic aircraft were withdrawn from the Frontier Airlines route network.

Due to the sharp rise in world fuel prices by the beginning of 2008, Frontier Airlines’ financial activities turned out to be unprofitable. The company First Data, serving the carrier’s electronic payments by plastic cards, announced that from May 1, 2008 it will withhold all the airline’s proceeds from the sale of tickets without exception to send funds for settlements with its creditors. On April 10 of that year, the management of Frontier Airlines resorted to the procedure for protection from creditors, taking advantage of the provisions of Chapter 11 of the United States Code of Bankruptcy of Commercial Enterprises of the United States. In a related press release, top managers of the carrier stated that First Data’s decision to withdraw working capital would entail a significant change in the airline’s business plan, which would lead to a decrease in the liquidity of its financial assets. After the announcement of bankruptcy, Frontier Airlines continued its activities, since Chapter 11 of the Code provides for the protection of the assets of the enterprise from creditors and allows for the restructuring of the enterprise, aimed at overcoming the crisis.

In November 2008, the airline reported a profit of $2.9 million in November this year.

On June 22, 2009, the management of Frontier Airlines announced that before the decision of the court in the bankruptcy case, a deal would be formalized to sell the airline to Republic Airways Holdings, an aviation holding company headquartered in Indianapolis. The amount of the transaction, according to the preliminary agreement, was to be 108 million US dollars. However, on July 30 of the same year, low-cost airline Southwest Airlines announced its intention to offer $113.6 million for Frontier Airlines to be acquired and reorganized as its own subsidiary.

On August 13, 2009, an auction was held for a bankrupt company, as a result of which Republic Airways Holdings acquired Frontier Airlines and its regional subsidiary Lynx Aviation. All procedures for the transaction were completed on August 13, 2009, after which the airline was officially declared out of bankruptcy.

At the end of 2009, the holding carried out a restructuring of the management staff of Frontier Airlines, during which 140 administrative positions

Frontier Airlines currently flies to 115 destinations5 in the United States, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Canada.