Frontier Airlines files for bankruptcy

[phantom power]

This recent epidemic of airline failures is kind of amazing.

Frontier, whose major hub is in Denver, has been affected as other airlines have by rising fuel costs and the credit crisis in financial markets.

ATA Airlines, Skybus and Aloha Airgroup all have filed for bankruptcy recently, but Menke said Frontier's reasons for doing so were different.

"Unfortunately, our principal credit card processor very recently and unexpectedly informed us that, beginning on April 11, it intended to start withholding significant proceeds received from the sale of Frontier tickets," he said. "This change in established practices would have represented a material change to our cash forecasts and business plan. Unchecked, it would have put severe restraints on Frontier's liquidity and would have made it impossible for us to continue normal operations."

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/travel/2008-04-11-frontier-files-for-bankruptcy_N.htm

[GliderGuider]

1. Faster Than Expected...

I really expected the wave of airline bankruptcies to hold off for another year. I wonder if some of the vulnerable ones have also been hit by the credit fiasco as well as fuel prices?

After all, an aviation accident is rarely the result of a single factor...

[phantom power]

2. Over the years, I've developed an impression....

that airlines operate perpetually at the brink of bankruptcy. I've never really understood it. They always seem to be not quite in control of themselves, both financially and logistically.