Frontier Airlines ended Q4 2024 with revenues of $1 billion and with operating costs increasing only slightly – by 7% year-on-year (YoY) – the low-cost carrier ended the three months with an operating profit of $45 million. Its quarterly net profit was $54 million.
In terms of its full-year results, the airline ended the year with revenues and operating expenses of $3.77 billion and $3.71 billion, respectively, enabling the company to end 2024 with a net profit of $85 million. Its other income of $28 million helped its yearly profitability.
|
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
|
|
Frontier Airlines profit/(net loss) |
($225 million) |
($102 million) |
($37 million) |
($11 million) |
$85 million |
Barry Biffle, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Frontier Airlines, said that its revenue and network initiatives had contributed to its record Q4 revenue result, setting the company up for significant YoY revenue per available seat mile (RASM) growth in 2025.
Biffle added that the RASM growth will underpin its target of achieving double-digit adjusted pre-tax margins in the summer of 2025.
Speaking about its revenue performance, Frontier Airlines pointed out that RASM, which grew 15% YoY, was primarily driven by its disciplined capacity deployment, which focused on peak day flying and progress on its revenue and network initiatives.
Thus, a large part of its operating statistics decreased in Q4 2024, including the airline deploying 2% less capacity, measured in available seat miles (ASM) and the average stage length, which declined by 8% YoY.
Its total block hours decreased by 3%, while daily aircraft utilization decreased by a whopping 15% YoY.
As a result, instead of operating its aircraft 11.3 hours per day like in Q4 2023, it utilized its assets 9.6 hours per day in Q4 2024. Full-year average daily utilization decreased by 9% to 10.3 hours.
While it carried more passengers during the quarter and in 2024 – 8.5 million and 33.2 million, respectively – its average load factors are still barely growing.
In Q4 2024, Frontier Airlines’ aircraft were 78.3% full, an increase of 0.2%, while in 2024, the average airline’s flight had 76.8% of the seats occupied by paying passengers, a decrease of 4.6% YoY.
Lower fuel prices helped Frontier Airlines in Q4 2024. According to Frontier Airlines, its cost per ASM (CASM) went up 10% to 9.78¢, while CASM excluding fuel (CASM-ex) increased by 26% to 7.44¢.
Full-year CASM and CASM-ex were down 2% and up 3%, respectively.
Throughout 2024, Frontier Airlines introduced a number of revenue initiatives that, according to Biffle, helped the carrier achieve its record revenue performance during the last quarter of the year.
For example, in March 2024, the low-cost carrier introduced upgraded seating in the first two rows of the aircraft, providing extra room for passengers by blocking out the middle seat.
The measure was introduced into service on flights departing on or after April 10, 2024.
In May 2024, the airline presented ‘The New Frontier,’ which introduced sweeping changes to its product and customer offerings.
This included clear pricing options, no change fees, expanded customer benefits, and a lower price guarantee.
Its last initiative was announced in December 2024 when it introduced the next phase of ‘The New Frontier.’
This included first class seating, free seat upgrades, and unlimited free companion travel for Frontier Miles Platinum and Diamond Elite members.
However, the next phase of Frontier Airlines’ transformation will be rolled out gradually throughout 2025.
As such, the company’s guidance indicated that its adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) would be at least $1, while pre-delivery deposits (PDP) for aircraft would be between $10 million and $45 million.
Other capital expenditures (CapEx) will range from $175 million to $235 million.
