Frontier Airlines posted $18.7 million in profit in December, in spite of a recession, a collapse in the financial markets and a sharp decline in travel to post its best numbers ever for the month.
"The road has been a long one . . . and we've taken many punches," Sean Menke, Frontier's chief executive officer, said Wednesday during a meeting with reporters to discuss the results. "I couldn't be prouder of the organization and what has been accomplished."
Frontier made sweeping changes to its business model over the past year by selling planes, cutting positions, increasing various fees, adding new fees for checked bags, launching new fares and modifying its route structure.
It appears that those moves have started to pay off.
In addition to the December profit, Frontier returned to profitability on a quarterly basis in the last quarter of 2008. The carrier posted net income of $1.1 million from October through December - its first profit for that period in five years.
