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Passengers looking to book flights ahead of schedule with Frontier Airlines have discovered that the airline is not selling any fares beyond April 13, 2026, sparking concerns about the state of the beleaguered ultra-low-cost carrier. This is an unusually short booking window in an industry where airlines typically allow bookings up to 12 months in advance.
Frontier has been struggling financially for years, but is attempting to turn things around with the recent appointment of a new chief executive officer. The short booking window does not necessarily indicate anything catastrophic ahead, with the ULCC claiming it is implementing a significant schedule overhaul ahead of the spring and summer.
Frontier Isn’t Selling Tickets Past April 13
As first reported by ABC27, Frontier is not selling fares on any of its routes beyond April 13, a highly unusual move that has raised questions from passengers and industry analysts. Looking at scheduling data from aviation analytics company Cirium, the airline has not filed a flight schedule beyond this date either, with 816 flights scheduled on April 13 and zero scheduled on April 14.
In a statement, Frontier Airlines said its lack of available fares beyond April 13 is due to a network-wide schedule review, which will result in the carrier implementing an updated schedule. Without revealing any specific changes, the carrier said it has been finalizing its flying plans during the critical spring and summer months. In a statement to ABC27, Frontier spokesperson Rob Harris said,
“We are currently finalizing our spring flight schedule network-wide and will be releasing it to the public shortly.”
Is This The Right Move For Frontier?
Airlines typically unveil their schedules between 9–12 months ahead of time, allowing passengers to make their bookings and travel plans ahead of time. Although low-cost carriers have a tendency to implement slightly shorter booking windows, three months is very short and could lead to thousands of customers lost to rivals on key routes.
However, this can be an effective strategy for an airline undergoing considerable network or schedule shifts, helping them to avoid the costs and complexities of rebooking or refunding passengers booked on flights with new timings, although Frontier risks losing early booking revenue to competing airlines.
The move is not without precedent, with fellow ULCC Spirit Airlines doing something similar a few months ago amid a significant fleet downsizing. Spirit shortened its booking window in late 2025 as it divested several aircraft and routes, although its predicament is a lot more dire than Frontier.
The Ryanair Effect: Can James Dempsey Save Frontier’s ULCC Model?
Dempsey’s decade-long tenure at Ryanair makes him uniquely positioned to translate the ‘gold standard’ in ULCC operations to the US market.
A New Era Begins
Frontier has appointed James Dempsey as its new CEO, who will take the helm amid a period of uncertainty for the ULCC. Despite securing a modest yearly profit in 2024, Frontier’s losses over the first nine months of 2025 linger around $190 million. It has struggled to maintain consistency in its financial performance over the years, repeatedly ranking as one of the worst-performing US airlines. In fact, only Spirit Airlines — which is in the midst of its second bankruptcy proceedings — has performed worse as rumors over the carrier’s future continue to circulate.
Among Frontier’s enhancements are the possibility of adding free Wi-Fi to its flights, as well as the debut of its new First Class product in the coming months. Amid an industry trend of budget airlines upping their onboard product, even the ultra-low-cost ones are upgrading, with Spirit rolling out an enhanced legroom seat this year.
The airline’s new CEO can draw on a decade of experience at European low-cost giant Ryanair, which has consistently achieved profitability through its effective business model. For example, Ryanair has implemented an “out-and-back” crew scheduling model that ensures most crew return to their home base each night, making huge savings and improving schedule reliability.
