About 300 Frontier Airlines jobs — including 200 mechanics based in Denver — will be moved to Milwaukee as part of parent company Republic Airways Holdings’ consolidation efforts, it was announced today.
The remainder of the 300 Frontier jobs include some 118 employees of the airline’s Las Cruces, N.M., reservation center that will close in December.
Republic Airways acquired Frontier on Oct. 1 when the Denver-based carrier emerged from bankruptcy and Midwest Airlines, which is based in Milwaukee, on July 31.
Since then, Indianapolis-based Republic has been working to streamline the companies and create efficient operations.
“These actions will help us to further lower the costs of operating our branded business, better positioning us to compete over the long term,” Republic chief executive Bryan Bedford said in a release.
Republic spokesman Carlo Bertolini said Denver will remain the site of reservation, marketing, flight crew and administrative jobs.
“Denver will have the largest employment base of Republic Airways,” Bertolini said. “Denver is a major hub of our network. By no means are we exiting Denver.”
Frontier employs about 4,800 people, with most of them based in Denver.
Denver was competing with Milwaukee and Indianapolis to keep Frontier’s heavy-maintenance facility at Denver International Airport and retain Frontier’s heavy-maintenance facility and other jobs and attract future workers.
Republic will keep more than 700 current jobs and add up to 800 full-time positions over time in Milwaukee.
In the announcement, Republic officials said the company will invest in maintenance operations and infrastructure.
In return, Republic is eligible to receive up to $27 million in tax credits through the end of 2021.
“This is great news for Milwaukee and all of Wisconsin,” said Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle.
“Milwaukee has something we don’t: free hangar space,” Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said in a statement released today.
“We offered every incentive conceivable to Republic Airways, but we can’t pay their rent for them,” Hickenlooper’s statement said.
“We understand this was a necessary business decision for Republic, and in no way reflects on Frontier’s continued commitment to Denver and Colorado or its outstanding workforce,” the statement continued. “We remain determined to help in any way we can as Republic continues to realign its operations.”
Denver put together an incentive package to keep and possibly add Frontier jobs in Colorado. Denver officials acknowledged last month they couldn’t offer much in the three-way bidding war.
The Denver package included job-growth and job-retention incentives and wage and training subsidies that are good if Republic added jobs.
Republic’s Bedford said in an interview with The Denver Post more than a month ago that the cost of doing business in Denver — with a tax on aircraft parts and software related to reservations — was prohibitively high.
“This is not a scenario that will continue,” Bedford said.
Denver officials were concerned about how waiving the taxes would impact the city’s troubled budget, and that if they waived the taxes for Frontier, they would have to waive them for all the airlines.
Matthew Fazakas, president of Teamsters Local 961, which represents about 450 mechanics, freight drivers and other Frontier workers, was angered by what he called a failure of Colorado and Denver leaders to step up.
“The jobs are gone,” Fazakas said today. “The political leaders of this city and this state don’t care. “
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
