Frontier Airlines to Cut 220 Jobs at Denver, Milwaukee Airports
Frontier Airlines is planning to cut 4.4 percent of its workforce, in the wake of the recent news that parent Republic is looking to sell the low-cost carrier.
Read Why Frontier is Being Sold
220 Jobs Eliminated in Denver and Milwaukee
The cuts will focus on two of Frontier’s biggest hubs, Denver and Milwaukee. In fact, 40 jobs have already been eliminated in Denver, but another 60 are on the chopping block there. At the carrier’s Milwaukee operations, meanwhile, employees are bracing for the loss of 120 jobs. A company spokesman says they hope that attrition and voluntary departures will keep forced exits down.
Frontier’s Popular Tail Animals Star in TV Ads
More Downsizing to Come?
This may not be the end of the downsizing, either. Bloomberg quotes Frontier spokesman Peter Kowalchuk who said last week that Frontier’s 2012 seating capacity might fall as much as 12 percent from 2011 levels, “and [would] likely result in a similar reduction in staffing.”
It was just a couple of years ago that Republic bought Frontier and popular Midwest Airlines and merged the two carriers, retaining the Frontier name (and famous “tail animals”), but it may not have been a particularly good fit for Republic. As Bloomberg noted, “buying Frontier moved Republic away from its traditional role of providing regional flights for carriers such as Delta” and directly into the competitive arena of vying for passenger dollars with all the other airlines.
