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Frontier Airlines

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This article is about Frontier Airlines that was founded in 1994. For the company known as Frontier Airlines from 1950 to 1986, see Frontier Airlines (1950-1986).
For the similar named Frontier Flying Service see Frontier Flying Service.
<tr><td colspan="3" style="text-align: center; background-color: #FFFFFF;">250px</td></tr><tr><th colspan="2">Hubs</th><td>Denver International Airport</td></tr><tr><th colspan="2">Focus cities / secondary hubs</th><td>Cancún International Airport
Los Cabos International Airport</td></tr><tr><th colspan="2">Frequent flyer program</th><td>EarlyReturns</td></tr><tr><th colspan="2">Parent company</th><td>Frontier Airlines, Inc.</td></tr>
Frontier Airlines
IATA
F9		ICAO
FFT		 Callsign
Frontier Flight
Founded1994
Fleet size55
Destinations58
HeadquartersDenver, Colorado
Key peopleJeff S. Potter (President and CEO)
Samuel D. Addoms (Chairman)
Website: http://www.frontierairlines.com

Frontier Airlines, Inc. (NASDAQ: FRNT), is a low-cost airline based at Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado, USA. It operates flights throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

Frontier is a national low-cost airline with two thirds of its US destinations west of the Mississippi River. The carrier maintains its primary hub at Denver International Airport, and provides regional service to the surrounding Rocky Mountain States through a codeshare agreement with Great Lakes Airlines. The airline also codeshares with Horizon Air, operating as Frontier JetExpress.

Frontier offers a single class of service. While Frontier does market itself as a low-cost carrier, it differentiates itself in the market by offering LiveTV, an in-seat satellite television service, for five dollars on all domestic flights.

Frontier has frequent flier program, called EarlyReturns.

Contents

[edit] History

Frontier Airlines was founded in 1994 by executives of a previous incarnation of Frontier Airlines. Scheduled flights began in 1994 utilizing Boeing 737 aircraft. Like the original, Frontier flies out of Denver and competes with United Airlines and its subsidiary Ted, each of which use Denver as a hub. In the late 1990s, Frontier began purchasing Airbus aircraft and offering DirecTV in-flight television on its new aircraft. In mid-April 2005, Frontier officially became an all-Airbus fleet, retiring its last 737. It now has an average fleet age of less than two years, making its fleet one of the United States’ youngest.

Image:Frontier Boeing 737-300.jpg Frontier Airlines was the launch customer of the Airbus A318 in 2003, and now has seven in its fleet. Frontier has routes extending from coast to coast and to Mexico.

Frontier was one of the first carriers to offer a virtual "mall", allowing passengers to spend accrued miles on merchandise and unique services. Frontier is not a member of any of the major air carrier alliances.[citation needed]

Frontier is facing major competition from Southwest Airlines, which entered the Denver International Airport market in January 2006. Due to Southwest's growth at Denver and a resurgent United Airlines, Frontier has limited space to grow at Denver without committing to airport expansion, which would in turn be paid for by higher fees to the airport.

As part of it plan to stay competitive the company underwent a reorginization early in 2006. On April 3, 2006 Frontier created Frontier Holdings a holding company incorporated in Delaware to take advantage of favorable tax laws in that state. The corprate headquarters did not leave Colorado. <ref>"Frontier Airlines Fact Sheet", Frontier Airlines. Retrieved on 2006-11-01.</ref>

In November 2006, Frontier Airlines' partnered with AirTran Airways, allowing frequent flyers to earn airline miles in either EarlyReturns, or AirTran's A+ Frequent flyer program. In addition the airlines will refer customers to each other when appropriate.

[edit] Route Structure

Unlike some low-cost carriers, Frontier operates a hub and spoke route system, with nearly all flights originating or arriving at its Denver hub. Various low cost carriers such as Southwest and JetBlue use a more linear point-to-point route system with several focus cities. While the hub system can move people efficiently, it is also dependent on critical coordination at a single point. The linear flight system is less interdependent and therefore less prone to interruption. A single hub is also vulnerable to competitive concentration as shown with Southwest Airlines' current growth at Denver.

The vast majority of its flights are through its Concourse A hub in Denver, although Frontier has recently begun direct service to Cancún from several other cities. Frontier did have an abortive attempt to establish a focus city at Los Angeles International Airport from 2003 to 2004, but retreated under heavy competition. In 2006, Frontier returned to the California market with five daily point-to-point routes between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Hub-and-spoke systems like Frontier's, however, can simplify passenger connections. Long-distance itineraries between Frontier cities generally require no more than one connection (usually in Denver), whereas a linear carrier may require multiple connections to span a long distance. Hub-and-spoke systems can also simplify maintenance, as all aircraft transit a hub frequently.

Although Frontier is largely designed as a hub-and-spoke carrier, the airline does offer a number of routes, particularly to Mexico, that do not begin or end at Denver. In addition, in summer 2006, the carrier introduced nonstop service between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Furthermore, Frontier will commence new nonstop service between San Francisco and Las Vegas on December 14, 2006.

Frontier has deferred expansion in the competitive East Coast cities such as Boston and Pittsburgh, but otherwise is expanding outside the US in Mexico and Canada. However, the carrier does service the Florida tourist destinations and the business essential cities of New York, Philadelphia and Washington along the East Coast. The remaining Eastern interior city destinations are in the Midwest along with Atlanta and Nashville in the South. Contrary to Southwest Airlines, Frontier uses only one alternative airport in the East at Akron, which services the Cleveland market.

[edit] Mexico service

The carrier offers extensive service to Mexican resort cities, with a significant expansion to Mexico scheduled for December 2006.

From Denver, Frontier flies to Cancún, Cabo San Lucas, Cozumel, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, and Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo. Service between Denver and Guadalajara, the first Mexican non-leisure market for Frontier, begins in December 2006.

Frontier maintains a focus city at Cancún, Mexico, offering point-to-point nonstop service to and from Indianapolis, Nashville, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Salt Lake City. The carrier also serves Cancún fron its Denver hub. In December 2006, the carrier will introduce new non-stop service between San Diego and Cancún. In cooperation with Apple Vacations, Frontier also offers a non-stop, weekend-only charter service between Chicago's Midway Airport and Cancún.

The airline is expanding its nonstop, point-to-point routes to other Mexican cities. It currently offers service between Kansas City and Puerto Vallarta, and has received approval to operate Los Angeles to Cabo San Lucas and Kansas City to Cabo San Lucas in December 2006.

Frontier is very discreet with their new destinations. In early August 2006, Frontier announced that they would begin service to Guadalajara (GDL) from Denver (DEN) on December 22, 2006. This is Frontier's first non-leisure destination in Mexico.

On November 12, 2006, Frontier was given final authority from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to begin non-stop service between Cabo San Lucas (SJD) and Sacramento (SMF) with three flights a week, and Cabo San Lucas (SJD) and San Jose, CA (SJC) with four flights per week. The service is slated to begin on March 3, 2007. Combined with the further Mexican expansion announced by the airline in August and September 2006, Frontier will have 20 routes into Mexico. This expansion includes new routes from California to Mexico, without stopping in Denver.

[edit] Frontier JetExpress & Codeshares

In February 2002, the airline launched its first "express" product, Frontier JetExpress, initially operated by Mesa Airlines using CRJ-200 regional jets. Similar to "express" operations of other carriers, Frontier JetExpress is targeted at routes to and from Denver that do not generate traffic sufficient to support Frontier's smallest mainline jet, the Airbus A318, but can still offer lucrative business with a smaller jet.

The initial partnership with Mesa ended in January 2004, when Horizon Air was selected to operate the routes. Horizon utilizes slightly larger CRJ-700 aircraft on these routes. In August 2006, Frontier and Horizon announced that their partnership would end. While Frontier was generally pleased with Horizon's operation, the carrier decided that it needed to revisit the agreement and find a provider with additional regional jets to grow the operation.

As of September 2006, Frontier Airlines offers both mainline service and Frontier JetExpress service between Denver and Albuquerque, Austin, Billings, Dayton, Omaha, Oklahoma City, San Jose, and Spokane. Frontier JetExpress operates all departures from Denver to Boise, El Paso, Little Rock, Fresno, and Tulsa.

Frontier JetExpress service offers in-flight snack and beverage service similar to Frontier's mainline flights, but unlike mainline aircraft, JetExpress aircraft are not fitted with LiveTV.

Frontier also has a codeshare with regional carrier Great Lakes Airlines, connecting flights at Denver International Airport and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

[edit] Lynx Aviation & FrontierExpress

On September 6, 2006, Frontier announced that a new division of the holding company known as Lynx Aviation, would operate 10 Bombardier Q400 aircraft beginning in May 2007 as FrontierExpress.<ref>Yamanouchi, Kelly. "Frontier thinking small to go bigger", Denver Post, 2006-09-06. Retrieved on 2006-09-07.</ref> The first Q400 will be delivered in May 2007 with one additional aircraft per month from July through September and two per month from October through December. The 10 option aircraft would be delivered March 2008 through January 2009.<ref> http://www.vcall.com/IC/CEPage.asp?ID=108827, conference call among Frontier management and investors.</ref>

The name plays off of the tail pictures of its planes, specifically Larry the Lynx, and the fact that it "Links" smaller airports to the main Denver hub.<ref>Yamanouchi, Kelly. "A conversation with Tom Nunn of Lynx Aviation", Denver Post, 2006-10-31. Retrieved on 2006-11-01.</ref> One reason for the change is to help reduce costs, Frontier hopes to cut costs on routes 650 miles or shorter by 30%, allowing entry into new markets. <ref>Yamanouchi, Kelly. "A conversation with Tom Nunn of Lynx Aviation", Denver Post, 2006-10-31. Retrieved on 2006-11-01.</ref> It is unknown at this time if the aircraft will have LiveTV installed on board.

The current head of Lynx Aviation is Tom Nunn.<ref>Yamanouchi, Kelly. "A conversation with Tom Nunn of Lynx Aviation", Denver Post, 2006-10-31. Retrieved on 2006-11-01.</ref>

[edit] Maintenance Awards

Frontier has been awarded the FAA Diamond award for seven years straight, from 1999 through 2006. The Diamond award recognizes carriers whose mechanics and maintenance staff complete additional training and certifications beyond that required for normal FAA certification.

[edit] Destinations

Main article: Frontier Airlines destinations

Frontier Airlines currently flies to 56 destinations throughout Canada, Mexico, and the United States. This number will change to 58 when the airline adds Guadalajara on December 22, 2006, and Hartford on March 2, 2007.

[edit] Fleet

Image:Frontier Airlines plane at Denver International Airport.jpg The Frontier Airlines has an all-Airbus fleet consisting of the following aircraft as of September 2006:

Frontier Airlines Fleet
Type Number Seats Orders/Options
Airbus A318-110 7 114 4
Airbus A319-100 48 132 5
Airbus A320-200 0  ? 10

The average Frontier Airlines fleet age is 2.8 years old as of October 2006.

On September 6, 2006, the airline announced an order for 10 Bombardier Q400 aircraft (and options for a further 10) to be delivered starting in May 2007, to be operated by a wholly owned subsidiary of the airline going by the name of Lynx Aviation.

[edit] Livery

The Frontier Airlines livery consists of an all-white fuselage with silver billboard-style “Frontier” titles on the sides of the aircraft. Frontier uses wildlife photography on the vertical stabilizers and winglets of the aircraft to produce a distinctive look, touted in their advertisements along with their slogan: “A Whole Different Animal.”

The concepts used in the livery extend into Frontier’s marketing as well. Animal aircraft used in their radio and television commercials include Jack the rabbit, Grizwald the bear, Foxy the fox (for whom Jack has a crush), Flip the dolphin (who always gets stuck going to cold climates instead of Florida), Larry the lynx, and Sal the cougar. New additions are Penguins Jim, Joe, Jay, and Gary, a barbershop-style quartet, singing the praises of the program to an audience of Frontier’s well-known characters from the “a whole different animal” campaign, and Hector the otter, advertising Frontier's expanded service to Mexico.

[edit] Tail Names

Each animal on the tail of a Frontier Airlines Airbus has a name. Their names are...

Airbus A319

Image:FrontierA319.jpg
Image:FrontierDenver.jpg

Airbus A318

[edit] Confusion with Frontier Flying Service

Frontier Airlines is occasionally confused with Fairbanks, Alaska–based Frontier Flying Service, because of the similarity in name. Passengers at Anchorage International Airport are especially prone to this confusion, because both Frontiers fly out of the airport, albeit from different concourses (Frontier Airlines uses Concourse B, while Frontier Flying Service uses Concourse A).

[edit] References

<references/>

[edit] External links


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