Travel website has stopped listing flights and selling tickets for Frontier Airlines after Frontier sought to restructure its contract with the online travel agency.
Frontier said Thursday that it is holding discussions with Expedia with the aim of negotiating a new contract and getting its flights relisted.
Frontier filed last month for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Bankruptcy laws allow debtors to cancel or try to restructure existing contracts.
“I wouldn’t describe it as any animosity” between the two firms, said Frontier spokesman Steve Snyder. “But when you have an opportunity to restructure, you look at every single contract to see if you can turn something to your advantage.”
Frontier gets about 24 percent of its bookings from online travel firms such as Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline and Travelocity, Snyder said. He would not comment on whether Frontier is attempting to restructure contracts with other online travel firms.
Travelers visiting Expedia on Thursday to book a flight, for example, to the Frontier destination of Sacramento, Calif., would have found nonstop flights on United and US Airways but not Frontier.
Expedia spokeswoman Katie Deines said that pulling Frontier off its website “is the result of a business decision, which as a matter of company policy, we will not provide further comment on.”
Deines said customers who already have booked Frontier flights on Expedia or its affiliate will not be affected.
Traveler Rob Hagens of Denver said he was unhappy not to see Frontier flights when he recently checked Expedia for a trip.
“I always try to fly Frontier whenever I can,” he said. “So I was sort of shocked and irritated by Expedia’s decision to take (Frontier) off the website. I suspect it’s some kind of negotiating tactic, and it’s frustrating because I’m a big supporter of Frontier.”
In a bankruptcy-court filing this week, Frontier said it had an operating loss of $12.3 million in the first three weeks of April. Revenue of $69 million was offset by expenses of $81 million, including $28 million for aircraft fuel.
Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com
