by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 3:15 PM ET, Thu September 11, 2025
Frontier Airlines is banking on being America’s low-fare airline in order to survive well into the future.
The airline’s CEO, Barry Biffle, told Travel Weekly that the Denver-based ultraslow-cost carrier fully expects to be the "last man standing in the low-cost space next year."
Biffle’s comments come at a time when Spirit Airlines is working through its second bankruptcy restriction in 2025 alone. Earlier this summer, struggling Spirit Airlines also laid off and demoted hundreds of pilots.
Biffle also told Travel Weekly that he sees opportunity in Frontier’s credit card and loyalty products, along with the airline’s introduction of first-class seats.
"We see a real opportunity now on the product and the price side to be America's low-fare airline," Biffle told the publication. "Today, we are the top carrier in half of the top 20 metros for the ULCC space, and we see there is pretty much a clear path where we could be No. 1 at some point over the next 12 to 24 months in all of them."
This commentary comes at a time when Frontier is facing plenty of struggles of its own. It reported a net loss of $70 million for the second quarter. It’s operating margin was -7.5 percent.
Biffle told Travel Weekly that improving the airline’s situation will come down to a variety of factors. That includes a needed shift in industry supply-and-demand dynamics. The airline CEO is referring to the slump in demand for domestic economic tickets, which has caused struggles for low-cost airlines.
However, those challenges appear to be easing. As an example, fellow low-cost carrier JetBlue recently revised its third quarter revenue projects upward. In so doing, the airline noted that there has been improving demand.
To further help sure up business, low-cost carriers have been limiting capacity. Spirit is flying 23 percent fewer seats in September then it did for the same month last year. The carrier has also announced that it will cut operations at 11 airports next month.
Meanwhile Deutsche Bank investment analysts estimate that Frontier is best positioned to benefit from Spirit’s operational changes, according to Travel Weekly.
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