Frontier in “strong financial position”; expects recovery by Spring 2022

Frontier Airlines says it is in a “strong financial position” to get to pre-coronavirus levels by early 2022 despite the coronavirus’ Delta variant that ate into the carrier’s revenues in Q3 2021. The Denver-based ultra-low-cost carrier reported a $23m profit for the quarter that ended on 30 September. Adjusted to take away financial aid the airline received from the government and other items, the carrier posted a $24m loss for the quarter. Revenue for the third three months of this year came in at $630m, up from $245m in 2020, but still lower than the $669 the carrier earned in the three months that ended on 30 September two years ago. “This quarter reflected another step in our path to recovery, with the business remaining resilient in managing the dynamic nature of the pandemic,” says Frontier’s CE Barry Biffle. “Despite the impact of the Delta variant on bookings during the quarter, we increased our capacity, departures and level of ancillary revenue per passenger as compared to the comparable pre-Covid quarter.” But the airline’s executives expect the coronavirus’ more-transmissible Delta variant to be “transient”. The airline is seeing strong bookings for the busy end-of-year holiday travel season, which begins later this month with the Thanksgiving long weekend - often the busiest travel weekend of the year. The company’s capacity guidance for the fourth quarter of the year is 2-4% above that of the same quarter in 2019, with a net income of 10-20% lower than in the pre-pandemic Q4 2019. “We believe that from a demand and revenue environment, we should be back to 2019 levels by the time we get back to spring,” Biffle adds.<br/>