Frontier Abruptly Makes CEO Change

Frontier Airlines announced Monday it was making a change at the top, replacing CEO Barry Biffle with the carrier’s president, Jimmy Dempsey. The unexpected change — it was originally believed Tico the Two-Toed Sloth was in line to take over — was effective immediately and reportedly left industry insiders Biffled by the decision. As part of the settlement, Biffle was given a severance package consisting of a 2-for-1 coupon for admittance to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and a GoWild! pass valid through June 30, 2026.

Neither Biffle nor the carrier appear willing to comment on what caused the sudden shakeup after a decade at the airline or the (interim) elevation of Dempsey to the top spot. Frontier said Biffle would stay on in an advisory capacity until the end of the year or when the milk in Frontier’s breakroom expires — whichever comes first. Dempsey has been with Frontier since 2014, coming to the airline from Ryanair. We’re not saying his past will affect what he does at the helm of Frontier, but the carrier has reportedly filed forty three lawsuits this week and is challenging its revenue team to find new ways to upsell customers.

Rumors are swirling around Frontier as it possibly takes another stab at a merger with Spirit. Spirit, of course, is flailing in its second bankruptcy of the year. Whether those rumors are related to this move are certainly something many will speculate on. We, however, will wait and see.

Delta President to Retire

Delta president Glen Hauenstein will retire after 20 years at Delta with his final day being February 28. Hauenstein will be partially-succeeded by Joe Esposito, a 35-year veteran of Delta who currently serves as its SVP for Network Planning, Pricing, Revenue Management, and Biscoff Operations. But there is nobody who can really succeed Glen.

Hauenstein will stay on as a strategic advisor through the end of 2026 — which begs the question as to whether or not there’s a secret handshake for strategic advisors so they recognize each other in the airport and elsewhere. Let’s put Barry Biffle in a room with Hauenstein and see what happens. While it’s CEO Ed Bastian that is often the public face of Delta (along with his BFF Tom Brady), it’s Hauenstein who has led much of the airline’s climb to the top. With his pending retirement, the question becomes whether or not Delta can…keep climbing.

Esposito, who will take over as EVP – Chief Commercial Officer on March 1, started at the carrier in 1990 working in airport customer service in Orlando — and he survived that long enough to escape Florida and take a management role in Atlanta in 1995. While he transitions upward out of his Network Planning role into the EVP chair, the carrier is expected to cast a wide net to find a new Director of Biscoff Operations. Interested candidates should enjoy delicious, velvety crunchy, caramelized, spiced shortbread biscuits, long taxis near Jamaica Bay, and six-figure SkyMiles redemptions.

Viva, Volaris Announce Merger

Mexico’s two busiest airlines, Viva and Volaris announced late Thursday they have agreed to merge, creating what will become Mexico’s largest airline by far. This is being presented as a merger of equals with both airlines keeping their brands and independent operations while combining ownership at the top and splitting one water cooler at the combined HQ instead of having to pay to have two.

The carriers have a lot of overlap — both fly a fleet exclusive to Airbus, operate similar routes, and have names that begin with V. They are hopeful the deal will close sometime next year but expect to see resistence from both Aeromexico and the U.S. government. Aeromexico naturally doesn’t want to see its two biggest competitors join forces to extract more market share, while the current U.S. government will oppose anything that happens in Mexico for sport.

JetBlue to Add a Dash of Minty Freshness

A year after we first learned of the possibility, JetBlue is reportedly moving forward with its introduction of first class on the majority of its airplanes by the end of 2027. The process will start next year, with about a quarter of its non-Mint fleet to be equipped with the new cabin by the end of 2026 and the bulk of the rest completed by the end of ’27.

As we know, JetBlue offers its Mint product on its flights to Europe and selected other routes within the United States and to the Caribbean. The rest of its flights are in an all-coach configuration with a smattering of extra legroom seats. This new undertaking will bring JetBlue more in line with its non-Southwest U.S. rivals with a domestic first class that is a step up from its economy offering but will pale in comparison to its full-service Mint product.

The first plane is scheduled to be outfitted with the new cabin in June, with full-scale production beginning later in the summer with about 20 planes per month being completed. If you’re the kind of person who cares about these things, you’ll want to know that JetBlue selected the Collins Aerospace MiQ seat for its new first class, the same seat you’ll find on American.

American Adds 15

American Airlines AAnnounced 15 new routes on Thursday, as it deepens its network by adding more service to locations that are definitely real places that someone must want to go to or it wouldn’t be flying all these planes to them.

For starters, American will finally fill the gaping hole in its network that is Lincoln, Nebraska, replacing the void left when Red Way went belly up two years ago, three whole months after its inaugural flight. AA will fly twice daily to Lincoln from Dallas/Fort Worth along with once-daily CRJ-700 service from both Chicago/ORD (year-round) and Phoenix (winter). Other metropolises to gain service in this American route announcement include:

• Abilene
• Bozeman
• Columbia (MO)
• Erie
• Jackson
• Kalispell
• McAllen
• Rapid City
• Roanoke
• Tri-Cities (TN)

This feels like a good time to remind everyone of American’s corporate mission statement: “Today, Rapid City. Tomorrow, maybe Sioux Falls? Dunno, we’ll think about it.”

• airBaltic is getting out of the wet lease game.
• Alaska now has Starlink on its Embraer fleet. It’s also adding to both Anchorage and Portland.
• American will no longer allow basic economy customers to earn miles or loyalty points. They will still have access to seat belts, restrooms, and oxygen masks — for now — but the carrier isn’t making any promises. When asked to comment, a spokesperson for the airline said it would maintain those three items for basic customers for the time being, but said “if you want to breathe air so badly, buy a main cabin fare.”
• Austrian will no longer be supported or held up by its wet lease agreement with Braathens Regional Airways.
• China Airlines ordered five more A350-1000s.
• Delta is facing a lawsuit because it allegedly violated California wage laws by trying to pay staff in biscoffs and SkyMiles.
• Denver Air Connection is leaving Dubuque which will leave the Fort Wayne of eastern Iowa without commercial air service.
• Finnair is going to begin flying from Helsinki to Melbourne via Bangkok in October.
• Kenya Airways is opening a base in Accra with three E190s to start.
• LATAM Brazil is offering signing bonuses for E2 pilots.
• Oman Air is starting 2x weekly service between Muscat and Copenhagen via Baghdad because apparently its network planning team enjoys mad libs.
• Republic Airways is promoting president Mathew Koscal to CEO.
• Riyadh Air‘s third airplane is nearing completion.
• Royal Jordanian is increasing Amman – Detroit from 4x to 5x weekly.
• Ryanair opened a base in Rabat — its 5th in Morocco.
• SAS‘s new overlords Air France-KLM would like to see it grow in Copenhagen.
• Southwest is entering an interline agreement with Turkish.
• Spirit received a stay of execution.

Me: When I eat alphabet soup, I only eat the vowels.

My friend: Why?

Me: Sometimes.