Frontier Airlines won bankruptcy-court approval Thursday for its reorganization plan, clearing the way for the Denver airline to emerge from Chapter 11 protection.
Under the plan, Frontier is to be acquired about October 1st by Republic Airways Holdings Inc., which intends to operate Frontier as a stand-alone airline under its own name. Indianapolis-based Republic has not said whether it plans to keep Frontier's headquarters in Denver.
"This is an extremely proud day for everyone in our company," Frontier president and CEO Sean Menke said in a statement. "Many people doubted that we would even survive, let alone accomplish a successful reorganization, provide a recovery for our creditors and emerge a stronger competitor and company. ... We will be a successfully restructured airline, well positioned to be a competitive, successful, sustainable airline for years to come."
Menke thanked Frontier employees for "their hard work, sacrifice and resiliency during the bankruptcy."
Republic Airways Holdings won an auction in August to buy Frontier and make it a wholly owned subsidiary. Republic — which also owns regional Chautauqua, Midwest and Republic airlines, as well as Shuttle America — hopes to enter into the low-fare national carrier business with its purchase of Frontier.
Now the question becomes whether Frontier will continue to be based in Denver, and whether some of its several thousand local jobs will move elsewhere.
Republic signaled earlier this month that it is considering shifting as many as 250 Denver-area Frontier jobs to Milwaukee or Indianapolis.
