Frontier Airlines planes line the gates of A Concourse at Denver International Airport in Denver.
David Zalubowski | AP
Frontier Airlines filed for an IPO on Monday, a second attempt to go public, as the industry positions itself for a recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The airline is owned by private equity firm Indigo Partners, whose managing partner is aviation industry veteran and low-cost pioneer Bill Franke, the chairman of Frontier Airlines.
Airlines are gearing up for a resurgence in travel demand after US passenger numbers fell by more than 60% last year to its lowest point since 1984.
Budget carriers with models similar to Frontier’s were among the most optimistic about the recovery. Rival Spirit Airlines, for example, will begin hiring pilots and flight attendants again this month. Domestic leisure travel, which those airlines concentrated on before the pandemic, is recovering faster than business and international travel.
Frontier had a loss of $ 225 million on sales of $ 1.25 billion in 2020, compared to net profit of $ 251 million on sales of $ 2.5 billion a year earlier, according to a legal filing on Monday.
The company dropped plans for an IPO last summer after filing in 2017.
The Denver-based airline plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker FRNT.