Frontier Airlines, Disappointed By Airbus A321XLR, Drops Model

Frontier Airlines dropped the Airbus A321XLR from its fleet plan because the aircraft’s performance fell short of the carrier’s expectations.

“The operating performance and range of the XLR ended up not being what we had expected,” the airline told Aviation Week after disclosing the move in a second quarter (Q2) filing. “If that changes in the future, we will re-evaluate opportunities with the XLR.”

Frontier did not elaborate on its specific requirements.

Previously the Denver-based ULCC had lauded the longer-range narrowbodies as providing opportunity for service to Hawaii and potential international expansion, including to Europe, and deeper into South America. Flying transatlantic is “definitely in consideration,” CEO Barry Biffle told the Routes World conference in October 2022.

But the carrier in June “provided notice to Airbus as permitted in the Airbus Purchase Agreements that it will not purchase any A321XLR aircraft,” it detailed, five years after announcing its intent to convert 18 A320neo family aircraft on order to A321XLRs. Frontier selected Pratt & Whitney’s Geared Turbofan (GTF) engine for the variant in January 2021.

Only the CFM Leap 1A-powered version of the XLR has received its type certification from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Certification of the GTF-powered version is slated for later in 2024. During the EASA certification process, the XLR’s new rear center fuel tank—enabling an extra 700 nm of range—prompted concern from regulators around its fire protection. Modification requirements put forward by the regulator forced Airbus to minimize impacts to the aircraft’s max range by saving weight elsewhere.

Pratt & Whitney deferred to Airbus for aircraft range questions; Airbus did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Frontier’s declination of the XLR conversion option comes as it also defers Airbus aircraft with original delivery dates in 2025-2028 out to 2029-2031, moderating growth over the next several years, and smoothing a capacity stream Biffle described as having gotten “very lumpy.” The ULCC projects capacity to grow by 4-6% in the third quarter (Q3), and 5-7% for the full year.

For its remaining orderbook of 187 aircraft Frontier now expects to receive nine A321neos in the second half of 2024; eight A320neos and 13 A321neos in 2025; 15 A321neos and seven A320neos in 2026; 26 A321neos and eight A320neos in 2027; 30 A321neos and four A320neos in 2028; and another 76 A321neos thereafter. A prior delivery schedule from March had expected 42 deliveries in 2025, 41 in 2026, 42 in 2027, 40 in 2028, and 66 thereafter.

Frontier ended the quarter with 148 aircraft in the fleet, a mix of 82 A320neos, eight A320ceos, 37 A321neos and 21 A321ceos. In Q2, it reported operating revenues of $973 million, up 1% year-over-year, on a 6.8% uptick in operating expenses. Frontier’s Q2 net income was $31 million, compared to net income of $71 million in Q2 2023. Looking ahead, Frontier projects an adjusted pre-tax margin of negative 3% to negative 6% in Q3, forecasting an adjusted pre-tax margin of negative 1.5% to positive 1.5% for the full year.

During Q2, the carrier opened four new crew bases and reached targeted levels of scheduled out-and-back flying in June. As part of that structural network shift aimed at returning to sustained profitability, Frontier launched 114 new routes from its now 13 total bases, reporting encouraging results in two-thirds of those markets. “We are delivering on what we laid out last year, to simplify the network, simplify the schedule and the operation, and we’re seeing huge dividends from that,” said Biffle. “And that’s going to continue to accelerate.”