Frontier Airlines magazine is heading off into the wild blue yonder

What's next for Frontier Airlines? Charging to use the bathrooms? Selling off the mascot animals to a circus? The latest cost-cutting move for the onetime hometown airline is the end of its in-flight magazine: The Wild Blue Yonder is heading off into the mild blue yonder.

Here's the announcement from the publisher of the magazine's current incarnation:

To all our friends and advertisers: Due to Frontier Airlines' escalating fuel costs and the terms of our publishing agreement, the costs to distribute the Wild Blue Yonder magazine going forward is unsustainable. Therefore, this announcement is the official notice that effective December 31, 2011 we will cease publishing the Wild Blue Yonder magazine for Frontier Airlines. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you. Thank you all for your business and well wishes over the years, as this was a labor of love for all involved. All the best. David A. Henry Publisher

Frontier could still offer in-flight reading of another sort, of course. We've perused the pages of Frontier's in-flight magazine through several incarnations -- and airline ownerships. I still fondly recall the "From the Cockpit" feature penned by smiling Captain Chick Stevens in the '80s. And then there were the recipes offered by the wife of CEO Sam Addoms in the next era.

Two years ago, Republic Airways Holdings bested Southwest to acquire Frontier -- but Republic announced last month that it's now looking to sell the airline.

Don't expect to read about it in Wild Blue Yonder.

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