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Frontier Airlines pulls its flights from Expedia

Ben Mutzabaugh, USA TODAY
A Frontier Airlines airplane takes off from Denver International Airport on Sept. 27, 2007.

Frontier Airlines announced today (Feb. 25) that it is pulling its flights and fares off the big online booking site Expedia. Frontier says it was unable to reach a deal with Expedia to continue offering its schedules and fares via the online agency's booking engine.

"Booking Frontier travel at FlyFrontier.com remains the best choice as it's the only place where you're guaranteed an advanced seat assignment, you'll earn more EarlyReturns miles, and you enjoy more choice in your overall travel experience," Daniel Shurz, Frontier's senior vice president, commercial, says in a release. "Customers can still find our low fares on other travel sites such as Travelocity, Orbitz and Priceline, but will get the best value with Frontier when they book directly at FlyFrontier.com."

Frontier's desire to funnel more customers through its own website is no surprise. It was just this past September that the airline unveiled a new policy that effectively penalizes customers who book its flights elsewhere. Among the disincentives for booking on other sites: No option for assigned seats, reduced frequent-flier miles and higher fees.

"Particularly for families, it provides an incentive to book directly," Shurz told The Associated Press at the time of the changes. "There is no logical reason for our customers to want to book anywhere else."

The move to take its flights off Expedia, which is effective "immediately," also is among a series of shake-ups at the low-cost carrier in recent years as it struggles to find stable footing in an increasingly competitive landscape.

Frontier has drawn attention — and some criticism — for an increasingly helter-skelter route planning strategy during the past 18 months, during which the airline has entered and exited numerous markets. It also has pulled the plug on its Colorado Springs focus city less than a year after first expanding there. Frontier also announced a new focus city in Trenton, which, so far, is still in growth mode.

In Orlando, another of the airline's recent focus-city experiments, Frontier drew the ire of many Missouri families after it canceled its nonstop service between Columbia, Mo., and Orlando beyond May.

Frontier is being shopped for a buyer by parent company Republic Airways, which bought Frontier in 2009 and merged it with Midwest Airlines in 2010 before eventually discontinuing most of the latter's operations by early 2012.

Prior to beating out Southwest in an effort to buy then-bankrupt Frontier, Republic had operated regional service for on a fee-per-flight basis for major airline partners like United and Delta. However, Republic appeared to have a difficult time bringing Frontier's stand-alone model under its corporate umbrella — leading to its decision in 2011 to try to sell Frontier.

That effort is ongoing, with Republic once again turning its main focus to operating regional flights for "mainline" carriers.

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