Frontier Airlines CEO says everyone got ‘lazy’ during the pandemic

It isn’t just titans of Wall Street pushing for a return to pre-pandemic work expectations. Barry Biffle, CEO of Frontier Group Holdings Inc., said the airline plans to “double-down” on cutting costs and boosting productivity in response to a sudden slowdown in demand for the kind of domestic leisure trips that are his airline’s specialty. He didn’t specify what actions the company might take, but said the need to get leaner reflects a “society-wide” phenomenon all companies are confronting. “We got lazy in Covid. I mean seriously, people are still allowing people to work from home. All this silliness, right?,” Biffle said Wednesday at an investor conference hosted by Morgan Stanley. “All that’s out the window.” Biffle’s comments underscore how business leaders across the globe are pushing to restore more traditional workplace rhythms after millions of workers were sent home during the pandemic, many of whom are reluctant to return. Nearly one in three full-time US employees spend at least some part of their week working remotely, according to data from a team of economists including Stanford University’s Nicholas Bloom, who has tracked the behavior of thousands of Americans since the pandemic began. And the share of US companies that require full-time office attendance has declined this year, according to a survey from Scoop Technologies, which helps companies manage hybrid workplaces. “When we look at overhead versus 2019 adjusted for capacity, it’s up dramatically,” Biffle said. “Why do I have more people per plane in overhead than I had in 2019? It’s because they’re not as productive.” <br/>