Two of the nation’s biggest airline executives are signaling turbulent skies ahead for domestic travelers.
Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle sounded the alarm during the company’s second-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, August 5, cautioning that cuts to flight schedules may be inevitable. “There’s going to continue to be reductions in capacity in this industry,” he said, noting that many domestic routes are no longer profitable.
Biffle explained that the supply of flights within the U.S. has outpaced demand, squeezing margins for airlines. “I’m talking about domestic fares in the domestic marketplace,” he said. “We believe that the entire industry is not making money…nThe domestic [flights are] not making money. And that’s because there is too much supply relative to demand.” People reports that the low-cost carrier received $929 million in revenue for the quarter but posted a net loss of $70 million.
His comments come just weeks after United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby issued a similar prediction, per The Street. Speaking earlier this summer, Kirby pointed out that “every airline that’s not named United or Delta” is losing money on a sizable portion of its routes. “And the only way for them to get margins that are anywhere close to their WAC is to stop flying places that lose money. And that is going to ultimately happen,” he said.
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While Kirby suggested the changes wouldn’t happen “tomorrow” or “in the near term,” he emphasized that “economic gravity is ultimately going to win,” predicting that reductions in supply would benefit United and Delta most in the long run.
Biffle’s remarks, however, imply that the reckoning could arrive faster than expected — potentially leading to fewer flight options and reduced competition on domestic routes. For travelers, that could mean higher fares and less flexibility when booking trips within the U.S.
