US’s Frontier Airlines to add ten A321s

Frontier Airlines (F9, Denver Int’l) has said in its quarterly financial report that it recently signed commitments with two lessors to add ten A321-200s with deliveries scheduled from the second half of 2022 to early 2023.

The carrier did not identify the lessors but said that they are its existing partners. According to the ch-aviation fleets ownership module, the low-cost carrier leases all but one of its 112 aircraft from AMCK Aviation, AerCap, Aircastle, Air Lease Corporation, Aviation Capital Group, Avolon, BOC Aviation, CALC, CDB Aviation, Fuyo General Lease, GECAS, Goshawk, ICBC Financial Leasing, Jackson Square Aviation, KGAL, ORIX Aviation, and Park Aerospace Holdings. Its sole owned aircraft is an A320-200N.

“[The A321s] work in big markets, they work in small markets, they bring lower unit cost. The marginal costs on the extra seats is very low. We believe we can successfully deploy the additional A321s in almost every airport in our system. There are a few airports where, operationally, we have to use A320. But, broadly speaking, the A321 can fly almost everywhere in our system and as a mix of our fleet continues to move towards the A321, you’ll see us deploying it system-wide,” Senior Vice-President (Commercial) Daniel Shurz said during the quarterly earnings call.

According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, Frontier Airlines currently operates three A319-100s, nineteen A320-200s, sixty-nine A320-200Ns, and twenty-one A321-200s. It has a further sixty-two A320-200Ns, as well as sixty-seven A321-200Ns, and eighteen A321-200NX(XLR)s on order from Airbus. It plans to take five A320-200Ns during the remainder of 2021. The deliveries of the A321neo will begin in 2022 with the first five units of the type due to arrive that year alongside nine A320neo. The carrier has an option to convert 18 orders for A320neo into A321-200NX(LR)s.

Frontier Airlines has thus far refrained from adding second-hand aircraft – all of its aircraft, except for two ex-Monarch Airlines A320-200s – were delivered directly from the manufacturer.