Quote:
Originally Posted by TakeFive
From what I recall...
Frontier was bought and brought out of Bankruptcy by an investment group from Scottsdale, AZ. They were having trouble competing in Denver against SW (primarily) which was big enough to put pricing pressure on their routes w/o suffering themselves.
Something had to be done so they adopted a discount model. In Phoenix, Allegiant Air has been very successful with this model but flies out of Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport instead of Sky Harbor. By downsizing in Denver Frontier was able to develop other Focus Cities. Apparently this has worked out well for them despite a few hiccups along the way. They have recently filed to do a new stock IPO.
Afaik, they are happy maintaining their HQ in Denver so I'll support them for that reason alone.
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Frontier was originally saved by Republic. They were originally offered a buyout from Southwest but rejected it. Once Republic realized they couldn't run a branded airline operation, they sold it off to the same group that flipped Spirit from a frumpy carrier into the ULCC airline that it is today.
But I agree. I really miss the Frontier of the early 2000s that was more or less a JetBlue of the west – new Airbus aircraft, live TV, clean cabins, and nice customer service. Unfortunately, that business model stopped working once Southwest realized what they were missing out on and once United stopped shrinking in Denver post-bankruptcy.
The ULCC model certainly isn't for everyone, and I would almost never book a ticket on Frontier, Allegiant, or Spirit today, but their effects in the market are much appreciated. I recently booked a United ticket LAX-DEN for $54 one way! So even if you don't fly the ULCCs, at least be glad at the pricing pressure they put on the legacies and Southwest, which has basically become a legacy carrier as far as costs are concerned.
What's also nice about Frontier's downsizing in Denver in recent years is that it has allowed new carriers to come in or expansion for existing ones. Delta, American, Alaska, Virgin America, and the Mexican airlines have all expanded in Denver. That probably wouldn't have been possible if Frontier were still trying to duplicate United and Southwest's footprint to everywhere while taking up valuable gate space in Concourse A.