Frontier Airlines preps employees on possible name change

Photo by Ken Odey

Here's one person who'd like the Frontier name to stay the same.

In March, more than a hundred people participated in a "Save the Animals" rally calling for Frontier Airlines' new owner, Republic Airways Holdings, to retain the carrier's name and branding. To see photos from the demonstration, many of them featuring Frontier employees, click here.

These folks won't have to wait much longer to find out if their wish will be granted. Frontier spokeswoman Lindsey Purves confirms that an announcement has been scheduled for April 13. In the meantime, she says, several meetings with employees are being staged at various locations in the Republic system to share results of surveys about Frontier and its sister airline, Midwest.

No, she doesn't share the results -- but she does offer this.

"We're doing a series of employee town-hall meetings," she says. "We had two last week. We spent one day in Kansas City, with two meetings, and a day in Denver, with three meetings. And we're doing two more this week -- Indianapolis [home of Republic] tomorrow, and Milwaukee [Midwest's headquarters] on Wednesday."

Ian Arthur, Republic's vice president of marketing and branding, is the man in charge of emceeing the presentations. According to Purves, he's touching on the data derived from questionnaires given to customers and employees of the two airlines. The data was generally positive, she says: "Both of the brands are very well liked."

Regarding the mood of the meetings, Purves maintains that "the employees are very engaged. They're excited to find out what the decision will be and anxious to move forward." There haven't been any testy moments thus far, she insists -- just staffers "asking questions and providing feedback."

And that will continue after the choice is made. "We'll keep engaging our employees throughout this integration process as the brand is announced," she notes. "We'll make sure everybody is up-to-date and informed as we move forward."

Will that include the animals? By next week, they'll know, too.