Frontier Airlines New Owners Plan To Expand at Kansas City International Airport
October 6, 2009 | Airline Flight, Airlines Companies, Frontier Airlines
Frontier Airlines emerged today from bankruptcy protection, providing a boost to its new owners’ plan to expand at Kansas City International Airport.
Denver-based Frontier is now a subsidiary of Republic Airways Holdings Inc., which beat out a bid from Southwest Airlines Co. Republic also bought Midwest Airlines this summer.
Republic’s goal is to beef up service of both airlines at KCI. In particular Republic wants to bring Midwests’ service here back to levels similar to the first half of 2008, when the carrier had 31 flights to nearly 20 cities.
Frontier has five daily flights to Denver from KCI, and Midwest has 16 departures to several cities from Kansas City. A week ago, Midwest annnounced plans to start new seasonal, nonstop flights to Fort Myers, Fla. from mid December through mid April 2010.
Combining Republic, Midwest and Frontier work forces at KCI, total employment is near 300. More than half of the total work force is 155 pilots and flight attendants employed by Republic, the company said last month.
Frontier filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2008. It shrank while in bankruptcy and has been turning an operating profit for the past several months.
Nearly all of Frontier’s flights come or go from Denver.
Republic has said it will keep the Frontier name for its new subsidiary and there’s no change to its frequent-flier program, so passengers are unlikely to see any difference in the airline now that it’s out of Chapter 11 protection. Republic is looking for ways to make the operation more efficient, though, possibly including moving Frontier’s maintenance operation out of Denver.
“This is the end of a long, difficult journey and the beginning of a new, exciting one,” said Sean Menke, Frontier’s president and CEO, in a prepared statement picked up by Bloomberg News.
