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Frontier numbers good in December

By Chris Walsh, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 7, 2009 at 8:17 p.m.

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Frontier Airlines capped a turbulent year with a strong showing in December, filling its planes at record occupancy numbers for the month and reporting a solid increase in a key measure of revenue.

The bankrupt carrier said Wednesday that its load factor, which measures how full each plane is, rose to 79.5 percent in December compared with 72.6 percent a year earlier.

The company pared the number of seats it flies by 17.5 percent, more than offsetting a 9.7 percent decline in the number of paying passengers.

Those numbers indicate that Frontier more closely matched supply with demand, which should bolster its financial position for the month.

The Denver-based airline also said its average revenue for flying one passenger one mile jumped 11.3 percent, to 9.34 cents. Yield, a measure of average fares, increased 1.7 percent.

The positive results highlight the company's efforts to turn around its business as it attempts to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy by summer.

In recent weeks, the carrier has nailed down wage and benefits cuts for pilots and introduced a new fare structure. It also reported a small but important profit for November, marking the company's first month in the black since it filed for bankruptcy protection in April. The carrier will release financial information for December later this month.

On Monday, Frontier asked a bankruptcy court to extend until June its exclusive right to file a reorganization plan. The carrier said it has made a lot of progress but there's still "a great deal" to do.

Its biggest challenge now will be surviving the slow winter months and lining up financing to exit bankruptcy. Frontier's cash balance, including short-term investments, at the end of November stood at $57.2 million, which is in worrisome territory.

"Under what are very difficult economic circumstances, I think they've done quite well," said Dan Kasper, an airline consultant at the Cambridge, Mass., office of LECG. "Cash is the one thing that looks tight for them right now."

Comments

  • January 10, 2009

    10:34 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    prk166 writes:

    Imagine where Frontier might be today had the Feds not bailed out UAL.

  • January 12, 2009

    5:16 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    bph writes:

    The Feds didn't bailout UAL. They denied the 1.5 billion dollar ATSB loan UAL applied for and immediately UAL filed for Chapter 11. However since the Fed decided not to cosign on the ATSB loan they got stuck with a 10 Billion dollar pension liability .

    Imagine where Frontier would be if Denver didn't roll out the red carpet for Southwest....

  • January 21, 2009

    7:18 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    bmb527 writes:

    Southwest is just playing the game the way it is meant to be played. Frontier has had a history of bad management and wasting money. Frontier brought this on themselves. They outright lie to employees, and I for one am glad to be away from the lies and combative atmosphere that exists there. I just hope that the employees that are still there find work before the place shuts down and there are more people to fight for the few jobs that are out there.