Horizon Air will cease to be the regional jet operator for Frontier Airlines and will start pulling its planes from the Frontier JetExpress operation starting next year.
The companies announced today that they will end their contract. Horizon will begin moving its planes from Frontier’s JetExpress operation to its own network starting in the first quarter of 2007.
Horizon operates Frontier JetExpress regional jet flights, on Frontier routes including Denver to Calgary, Boise, Billings, Fresno, El Paso, Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Little Rock.
Horizon has been operating nine CRJ-700 regional jets as Frontier JetExpress since January of 2004 on a 12-year contract that becomes amendable after three years.
What triggered the change was that Frontier wants to grow its regional jet fleet from nine aircraft to as many as twenty. Frontier issued a request for proposal and Horizon “concluded that the invest in the additional aircraft needed to support Frontier JetExpress’s expansion would compete for capital that could be invested in growing the Horizon Air/Alaska Airlines network, and that the nine aircraft assigned to JetExpress are needed to support Horizon’s current network and planned growth within its service territory.”
At the same time as Frontier announced its plans to grow its regional jet fleet, it also announced that it would buy Q400 turboprop planes to expand with flights to Rocky Mountain destinations. Horizon operates Q400s, but Frontier decided it could grow more cost-effectively by owning and operating the aircraft through its own subsidiary.
Horizon Air is a subsidiary of Alaska Air Group Inc., which is also the parent company of Alaska Airlines.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-954-1488 or at kyamanouchi@denverpost.com .
