Please click on photo for full view, information and other Frontier photos.
Frontier Airlines (2nd) (Denver) has announced that it has selected the $108.75 million Republic Airways auction bid over the larger $170+ million Southwest Airlines bid. The differences were labor issues and Republic also agreed to waive the $150 million claim it has against Republic in the bankruptcy court. Republic has previously stated it would retain Frontier’s unique brand while Southwest planned to eventually merge the two airlines and replace the Airbus fleet with Boeing 737s.
Press release:
finance.yahoo.com/news/Frontier-Announces-Republic-bw-2193486258.html?x=0&.v=1
Meanwhile Southwest pledged to remain in the Denver market (and will probably now add more routes). Southwest also was unwilling to proceed without a labor agreement between its SWAPA pilots union and Frontier’s FAPA pilots union. The two unions were unable to reach a tentative agreement before the August 13 auction.
Press release:
finance.yahoo.com/news/Southwest-Airlines-Bid-to-prnews-3732211443.html?x=0&.v=1
Glad to hear the Frontier aircraft will maintain their branding. Now just waiting for N204FR to start flying!
Thank you Brian – good luck with N204FR when it arrives. Yes, from a photographer’s point of view, losing Frontier and their unique brand would be tragic. I am glad they will survive in the current form. I suspect DEN is going to become a very hot air-fare battlefield with probably increased service from WN as a reaction (they are committed to the DEN market). The airport is considering terminal expansion ideas. I wonder what UA is thinking and how they will react at DEN to maintain market share?