Frontier Cutting Jobs, Slowing Growth

Frontier Airlines said Wednesday it is cutting about 100 jobs amid jet fuel costs that have risen 18 percent since October.

It also said it expected a pre-tax loss of 58 cents to 68 cents per share for its December quarter, excluding special items.

CEO Sean Menke said employees were told Wednesday that the Denver-based carrier was cutting its indirect labor work force by 10 percent. Spokesman Joe Hodas described the jobs as corporate jobs not directly related to flight operations and said the cuts represented 1.4 percent of the airline's total work force.

The layoffs were expected to save Frontier about $5 million on an annualized basis, Menke said.

The airline also plans to scale back how much it expands its available seat miles, an industry unit that factors in the number of seats available and the number of miles flown. It also is evaluating the size of its fleet, Menke said.

The carrier plans to reduce mainline year-over-year growth in available seat miles through the first three months of 2008 from 13.7 percent to 8.6 percent, Menke said.

"In contrast to encouraging year-over-year unit revenue improvements for November and October, the cost of jet fuel has climbed 18 percent since October when we last provided an earnings estimate for the December quarter," Menke said.

Several other airlines have announced plans to slow growth and cut costs to deal with higher fuel prices and the prospect of an economic slowdown that could have people flying less.

Frontier reported record load factors, or occupancy, for November for the sixth straight month. The load factor was 78.1 percent, up from 72.8 percent in November 2006.

Revenue passenger miles, which refers to one paying passenger flown one mile, rose 22.5 percent to 788.8 million.

Frontier announced its news after stock markets closed. Shares of Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc. closed unchanged at $5.80, then gained a penny in after-hours trading. Shares have traded between $4.51 and $8.22 in the last 52 weeks.