Frontier Airlines EarlyReturns (Pre-Alignment) - Frontier reduces flights/staff by 17%, elminates 6 aircraft

Just saw this. The bad news continues.

Frontier To Cut 1 Of Every 6 Flights
Airline Expects To Reduce Workforce By 17 Percent

DENVER -- Frontier Airlines announced Wednesday that it is cutting 17 percent of its flights in the fall and winter.

It is reducing the frequency of flights and reducing its Airbus fleet by seven aircraft. The reductions will be phased in starting mid-August and completed by the end of September.

The airline said its reduction in capacity will also include a "proportional reduction in workforce" but it does not have specific details to disclose about how many jobs will be lost.

"These are very difficult but necessary moves to make, and we put a lot of thought into them," said Frontier President and Chief Executive Officer Sean Menke. "We are focused on weathering the significant storm that we and the rest of the airline industry are facing with record fuel prices and a slowing economy."

Besides the previously announced Louisville service cancel and the reduction of Philadelphia to once-a-day, the further reductions are not showing in Sabre tonight (nor on frontierairlines.com). I think it takes a few days to load.

I've read the internal employee memo from Sean Menke, CEO, and he DOES NOT mention station closings - only frequency reductions.

Many of F9's routes still show the "unrealistic" fall schedule posted a few months ago, like DEN-GEG 3x daily and DEN-BIL 5x daily.

Obviously the first-and-foremost decision to dump 7 Airbus' is cash. Menke even mentions it first - before alluding to pricing power with less capacity - in his memo. I believe F9 took in around $32 million with the previous sale of 4 Airbus' in May/June. These new sales should provide enough cash cushion through the winter and buy more time for Debtor-In-Possession financing.

this is so sad. I hvae 50,000 frontier miles sitting in a bank...and no where to go lol! I don't want to see them go under :(

this is so sad. I hvae 50,000 frontier miles sitting in a bank...and no where to go lol! I don't want to see them go under :(

use them...use them now! :eek:

use them...use them now! :eek:

Very difficult to do right now, for me at least. Unless you are summit level etc so you can do anytime type of awards.

Some details here: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jun/25/bankrupt-frontier-cuts-planes-capacity/

this is so sad. I hvae 50,000 frontier miles sitting in a bank...and no where to go lol! I don't want to see them go under :(

20k frontier will get you 1 round trip coach on airtran
thats how i used my last 20k

Some details here: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jun/25/bankrupt-frontier-cuts-planes-capacity/

It seems as though they are starting to burn the furniture. With Southwest poised to increase capacity, it seems like Frontier may be between a rock and a hard place. They may find it hard to get DIP funding under current market conditions and have to continue to sell aircraft to keep operating. But that can only happen for so long . . .

crap crap crap. my gut is telling me to use my miles, but my vacation bank is empty :(

An unfortunate step indeed but obviously something that they had to do. Most of the other carriers have also announced similar % in flight/staff cuts, Frontier is no exception. It does show that they're going to continue fighting for survival, keep it going for as long as they can and hope either for oil to decrease, a gov't bailout, or serious flight price increases to stick. Better to take this step than blindly burning through all their cash and having to do an abrupt shutdown like other airlines recently. That gives me confidence that if the worst happens, it will be announced well in advance and give people time to adjust their plans and make other arrangements... they'll obviously know if it's coming, and I expect that they'll be as classy and customer-friendly in that situation as they've been in treating their customers over all the years of great service.

I wonder how the Democratic National Convention falls into play here. It would make quite a statement about the economy for F9 to fail before or during this event with delegates getting stranded and the like. I guess WN and UA (but frankly they're inept) could come to the rescue and add flights to fill the void.

I wonder how the Democratic National Convention falls into play here. It would make quite a statement about the economy for F9 to fail before or during this event with delegates getting stranded and the like.

Won't be a problem. All delegates have been instructed to ride their bicycles to the convention.

This is all getting very depressing. There is not much time left. Doubt Friontier will last the year.

I don't have an immediate need for any F9 travel, I've given in and cashed in my miles on points.com for a Starbucks gift card.

it will be announced well in advance and give people time to adjust their plans and make other arrangements....

So they can fly empty planes around for a few months? Once they decide to close doors, it will be an immediate decision with immediate action. Unfortunately, airlines arent furniture stores. They cant have a "store closing" sale and dump everything at 50% off for a few weeks.

Won't be a problem. All delegates have been instructed to ride their bicycles to the convention.

And I am sure they all will... Unless they are rich and/or believe in global warming. Then they will come in their personal Lear Jets.