Company officials said the reductions in Frontier’s workforce, which totals about 5,000, may be accomplished through attrition or voluntary leaves rather than all of them as layoffs. The reductions are expected to be at Frontier’s primary hub airports in Denver and Milwaukee. The carrier is cutting more than 20 flights a day, roughly one-third, of its traffic at Milwaukee.
Frontier still has a handful of flights daily at Indianapolis International Airport.
Republic Airways acquired the financially distressed Frontier and Midwest airlines two years ago and combined them under the Frontier brand name.
Since then, Republic Airways has struggled with Frontier’s profitability in the face of rising fuel prices and the stiff headwinds of competition.
The current strategy is to position Frontier among the ultra low-fare carriers while flying larger airplanes with more seats to sell.
Last week, Chief Executive Bryan Bedford told Wall Street analysts that the company’s board of directors has agreed to hire an advisor to assess the financial future of Frontier and possible options to sell the airline to another carrier or to investors or an equity fund or to spin it off to shareholders.