Transportation

Frontier Swoops In After Spirit Fails While Rivals Cut Capacity

A Frontier Airlines airplane taxis to a gate at Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado, in 2022.Photographer: Michael Ciaglo/Bloomberg

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By Siddharth Philip, Vivien Ngo, and Allyson Versprille

May 10, 2026 at 2:30 PM UTC

While most airlines in the US are cutting back on capacity expansion — or reducing flying overall — Frontier Group Holdings Inc. is going the other way, pumping more seats into the market.

The reason is simple: a week after Spirit Aviation Holdings Inc. ceased operations, Frontier is executing on a strategy its CEO said has been in the works for months, pouncing on market share left on the table after Spirit went out of business.