This one is a real wildcard. I've been following this industry for decades and, usually, airlines with unsuccessful business models muddle along for awhile and either go bankrupt or merge. I see no reason right now to think Frontier is different. And I don't think Frontier is a great candidate for merger, because they have no core market (like a hub) to transfer and I don't think anyone would really want their customer-fronting employee base, which is inferior to the major airlines (sorry, just stating what I've seen the past several years).

The business model that works best in America right now is to offer the perception of luxury -- while often only providing modest improvement -- and charge elites significantly more money for it. Voila! You get a profit margin. This is what all the major airlines are doing, and it's working. Frontier's problem is their customer base is the less affluent value shopper. If they raise prices, they will lose a percentage of their customers. That would be OK, but their business model is based on growth -- not shrinking to a smaller, sustainable base. They keep hiring new (aka cheaper) employees and do these sale/leaseback transactions on new aircraft to raise cash. So I'm not sure a higher fare model will work. We'll just have to see.

Yes, this a real wildcard. Frontier is basically a carbon copy of Spirit. Though they actually fare worse in several metrics compared to Spirit, it was Spirit that was fodder for memes and late night jokes. In an era without camera phones and Youtube, this would not have happened.

The one saving grace Frontier has is that they still serve major airports. Allegiant, Breeze, Avelo, don't. Other than Allegiant at LAS, they don't have any scale anyway.

Though I am very pro-Frontier because they work for *me*, they definitely don't work for many people. The occasional flyer or someone used to the legacies is not going to know how to make Frontier work for them. From reading the Southwest forum after the Elliot Investment Group onslaught, I saw where a few people looked into trying Frontier. Good for them. But I also saw others who said, basically, "Absolutely not". Frontier is going to eventually have to get some of these "absolutely nots" to fly with them. They are trying, it seems, with the promotions. This Iran brouhaha couldn't have happened at a worse possible time for them.

Although it should be obvious that the DEN airport incident had nothing to do with them, I hope people don't link the incident to Frontier in their minds.

Aside from my loyalty to F9, I want them to succeed just so there's some lower fare choices. A world with the legacies and the limited ULCC coverage would be a nightmare IMHO.

Obviously, nothing is cheaper than flying Frontier one way for 30 bucks with no ancillary fees. But I don't see "a nightmare" without Frontier -- just higher fares for some trips. Right now, I think the best way to travel domestically (at least if you have flexibility) is to gin up credit card miles on AA and AS and fly coach on their cheapo award prices Obviously, a materially better experience than flying Frontier.