Is Frontier Airlines Safe And Reliable ? 2024

Frontier Airlines is a super affordable airline that operates flights to more than 100 routes in the United States, and several international destinations.

you can even score a flight for less than 50 bucks if you don’t have a lot of luggage, but with their low prices, some passengers are concerned about the safety of the airline.

In this post I will answer all your questions about the safety of Frontier Airlines, by examining its safety record, reliability and customer feedback, so you can make informed decisions whether to fly with them or not.

So let’s dive right in.

frontier-airlines-plane
Credit Frontier Airlines

Safety Record

Let’s mention first that there are two companies with identical name the old “Frontier Airlines ” and todays Frontier Airlines was founded in 1994.

The old Frontier Airlines was founded in 1950 ceased its operations in 1986 meaning the old Frontier is no longer exist.

If you search for the original Frontier Airlines in google you will get more info about their business, crashes and why they quit the business.

The new Frontier Airlines that operates today, has never suffered a fatal crash during its flights. 

Even though like any airline with a large fleet, the Airline won’t be free from some minor incidents.

Between 1995- 2022 the airline had few incidents, and none of them were major or because of the poor maintenance.

You can check the ASIAS-FAA database if you want to know more about any incidents

Here is some key facts about Frontier airlines safety record from Knaviation:

  • Frontier Airlines never has a fatal crash.
  • Frontier never had a pilot related incident.
  • Frontier never gets penalized or by violating safety regulations.
  • Frontier Airlines is IOSA certified, which is an optional audit that assesses and evaluates whether an airline has the necessary systems and processes in place and operates safely.

Certificates

Frontier Airlines is a safe airline certified by the FAA, under the safety number ( F3LA008Y ), you can view the certificate information on the FAA website.

Any airline will not acquire this certificate if they don’t meet certain safety requirements and laws. 

However, even if an airline is certified there will still be some uncontrolled incidents, so let’s look more to other concerns like fleet age and pilot skills.

Fleet Age

Of course any airline will work regularly to update its fleet, but what is really impressive about Frontier is they operate a modern Airbus Aircraft.

Here are some of the current fleet of Frontier Airlines, you can find more about their upcoming fleet in Planespotters.

AirplanesFleet SizeAverage Age
Airbus A320-200129.0 Years
Airbus A320neo803.5 Years
Airbus A321-200196.3 Years
Airbus A321neo6 0.2 Years

Generally Frontier have an average fleet age of 4.4 Years which is a promising number compared to other budget airlines.

AirlinesFleet SizeAverage Fleet Age 
Spirit Airlines195 Aircraft7.1 Years
Southwest Airlines786 Aircraft 12.3 Years
Allegiant Air126 Aircraft14.8 Years
Sun Country Airlines 54 Aircraft16.1 Years

But even though Frontier operates a fleet of Airbus, that does not mean that those airlines that operate Boeing or other aircrafts are less safe.

Both Boeing and Airbus are extremely safe, the Boeing has an accident rate of approximately 1 in 16 million flight hours whilst Airbus A320 has 1 in 14 millions flight hours.

Fleet And Maintenance

Frontier airlines have over 100 airbus aircraft, including A319s, A320s, and A321s. 

And it is slowly shifting its fleet to the Airbus A320neo, which is a new Airbus generation, so you don’t even need to sweat!

In terms of maintenance, Frontier has its own maintenance division, Frontier Maintenance Services (FMS), which is responsible for maintaining the airplanes. 

FMS is a subsidiary of Frontier Airlines and is staffed by certified mechanics and technicians who follow strict maintenance procedures to ensure that all aircraft are safe and reliable. 

The airline also outsources some maintenance work to third-party maintenance companies, but it still maintains and controls all of these operations.

Overall, Frontier Airlines’ fleet is modern and well-maintained, and the airline has procedures in place to ensure that its aircraft are safe and reliable.

Pilots

Just like any other Airlines Frontier Airlines have certain requirements for any pilot to join their pilot crew.

Pilot General Requirements: 

  • 2500 hours total time
  • 750 hours multi-engine fixed wing*¹
  • 500 hours pilot in command (PIC)*²
  • 500 hours jet/turbo-prop

In addition to these requirements they have also other obligation like:

  • Current FAA Class 1 Medical Certificate
  • Vision corrected to 20/20
  • ATP Certificate
  • FCC Restricted Radio Operator’s Permit

you can read the full requirements here.

What about their salary?

According to atpflightschool Frontier Airlines average pilot pay is 145.79$ which is less than what Southwest Airlines and Allegiant Air pay.

This may indicate that if you pay less you may hire a less qualified pilot, who may be less equipped to handle an emergency compared to a higher paid pilot.

So Is Frontier Airlines Safe And Cheap?

If an airline is cheap, it does not really mean that they are note safe.

Frontier Airlines is able to offer low cost fares because they charge for other services, like charging for luggage and cut on other amenities.

If you really look at it, they aren’t cheap.

They will be only inexpensive if you are traveling without luggage, and you don’t want to have any amenities on board, that is why Skytrax rated them as a 3 Star low cost airline.

Of course there are many ways that Frontier makes money but here is a basic example compared to other airlines.

Frontier Airlines

Flight price59$
First bag 40$
WiFi Not available
Total 99$

United Airlines

Flight price119$
First bag 0$
WiFi $10
Total 129$

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Final Thoughts

In general most airlines are safe and Frontier Airlines is actually really a safe and reliable airline.

They’ve got all the certifications you’d want, the FAA and IATA safety certificate, which makes them more safe and reliable.

They have none to one tiny incident per year in over 100.000 flights, which is something that you don’t need to worry about.

So if you are traveling light and you don’t have a lot of luggage to take, and wanted to save some money I would recommend flying Frontier.

The cheap prices are just a business model they set to be different and retain some happy customers.

We hope this helps

Happy travels.

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