Frontier Airlines EarlyReturns (Pre-Alignment) - Frontier not doing so well. Shares drop 18%.

"thanks to a challenging pricing environment, we now think profitability may not be in Frontier's near future. ... We think Frontier's aggressive growth strategy has taken its toll both on costs and on management time. And last, given the weak fare environment and Frontier's aggressive growth strategy, there is very little earnings visibility."


I really hate to bring bad news about an airline that has been extremely successful up to this point.

Unfortunately, due to Frontier's recent aggressive growth strategy and difficult pricing environment, Frontier will post it's first quarterly loss this summer in 4 consecutive years.

This year alone, Frontier added service to New Orleans, Sacramento, Ft. Lauderdale, Indianapolis, Boise, and Tampa. Frontier also started a code-share agreement with Mesa Air to operate routes from Denver to San Jose, Ontario, and St. Louis under the Frontier JetExpress name.

Frontier has always been a cautious airline and expanded slowly and added 2 to 3 new destinations per year max.

Last Friday, Frontier applied for a Federal Loan Guarantee.

If Frontier is ever profitable again, it will be quite a while.

It's too early to determine the future of Frontier. But Frontier will not become the next ATA or AirTran Airways like we were all predicting.

The full story can be read here:
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2002/07/01/daily9.html

Regards