Frontier Airlines is reportedly planning to go public. The airline is rumored to have hired underwriters Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank, and JPMorgan Chase to file the initial public offering. Frontier Airlines has been transforming itself from hub and spoke route system to a point to point system. This philosophy moves the company away from the network carrier model used by American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines, and towards a route network system similar to Southwest Airlines. This transition also includes moving to an ultra low cost carrier model made famous by Ryanair in Europe, and successfully used in the US by Spirit Airlines. This means offering passengers a super low base fare just for a seat, and then charging additional fees for all other services. These additional services include carry on bags, checked bags, an assigned seat, an upgraded seat, all beverages, snacks, and anything else they can think of.
Frontier Airlines and its turn around
Frontier Airlines has completed a major turn around the last few years. The carrier is owned by private equity investors Indigo Partners. Indigo acquired the airline in 2013 from previous owners from Republic Airways Holdings. Republic was already an investor in Frontier Airlines when it was in bankruptcy court in 2008, and bought the remaining stake in the air carrier it didn’t already own in 2009. Indigo is somewhat of an expert in operating discount airlines, having previously taken low cost carrier Spirit Airlines public in 2011. Indigo is also the largest owner of Wizz Air Holdings, a major low cost air operator in Europe. Frontier Airlines is most well known for the animals that adorn the carriers airplane tails. Headquartered in Denver, the airline currently operated more than 275 flights a day utilizing an all Airbus fleet. They serve more than 40 cities in the United States, Mexico, and Jamaica.
Image from flyfrontier.com website