Frontier Airlines’ CEO, Barry Biffle, issued a 12-word blunt warning to the US flyers regarding domestic flight capacity: “There’s going to continue to be reductions in capacity in this industry.”
The statement came after the second-quarter earnings call, warning that U.S. flyers should expect a contraction in domestic flights across the airline industry.
The message was also echoed by other flight executives. The central issues behind cuts are an imbalance between demand and supply.
Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines, argues that there is no profit left because of too much supply and less demand.
“If I dig deeper into it and I look at every airline that’s not named United or Delta, I can find at every single one of them, a double-digit percentage of their route network that loses money," Kirby said.
And the only way for them to get margins that are anywhere close to their WAC is to stop flying places that lose money. And that is going to ultimately happen,” the CEO continued.
In his prediction, Biffle said that “money-losing flights” will disappear within a few months, probably by the spring of next year. The travellers in the U.S. will have fewer options, mostly during off-peak days.
The era of “rock bottom” fares is also coming to an end. There will be a rise in prices to cover the cost.
“I’m talking about domestic fares in the domestic marketplace; we believe that the entire industry is not making money. You can’t – if you take out your code share, take out your international flow, all that, the domestic is not making money.”
Despite his warning, Biffle expressed confidence regarding Frontier Airlines’ future.
He believes that Frontier will be back on track to profit in 2026. In the second quarter of 2025, the Airline reported a loss of $70 million.
Biffle’s optimism stems from the current position of the Airline to weather the storm. He repeatedly said that Frontier has “one of the cleanest balance sheets in the industry.”
Regarding cost structure, he predicted that Frontier Airlines would be the “Last Man Standing” among the ultra-low-cost airlines.
Despite generating $929 million in total revenue, Frontier Airlines has a net loss of $70 million.