A Frontier Airlines plane lands at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas on Thursday, February 27, 2020.
Elizabeth Page Brumley | Tribune News Service | Getty Images
First class on Border? Not quite. But the budget airline launched a new add-on on Tuesday to get more space at the front of its tightly packed planes – without a neighbor in the middle seat.
On flights starting April 10, Frontier will offer UpFront Plus in the first two rows of its Airbus planes, where it will block sales of the middle seat. Those seats will also have four to five inches more legroom compared to most airplane seats, an airline spokeswoman said.
Prices start at $49, for bookings made before March 20 for flights between April 10 and April 30, but the spokeswoman said the seat option “is not intended to be a limited-time offer.”
Budget airlines such as Spirit and Frontier for behemoths like Delta, United And American have looked for ways to segment their cabins, sell more expensive products to customers or charge for pre-selecting seats.
Fellow budget airline Spirit offers the “Big Front Seat” in its Airbus cabins. The new Frontier option is not a new seat, but instead is distributed differently than most of the aircraft.
Costs are especially important for budget airlines, which charge more for everything from seat selection to carry-on luggage, on top of the base fare. Frontier averaged $42 per passenger in airfare last year, down 22% from 2022, while non-flight revenue rose 1% to nearly $74.