After lawmakers lashed out at Frontier Airlines on Wednesday for its plan to charge passengers a fee to make sure they are next to an empty seat, the airline abandoned the idea.
The idea was that passengers could guarantee the middle seat would be empty while flying during the coronavirus pandemic. Frontier was going to charge $39 for the “more room” option.
According to CBSN-Denver, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee called it ‘outrageous.’ Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said the Denver-based airline is using the need for social distancing ‘as an opportunity to make a buck … capitalizing on fear and passengers’ well-founded concerns for their health and safety.’"
CBSN-Denver reported that, "Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., highlighted the fee during a congressional hearing on how COVID-19 is affecting the airline industry.
‘I don’t think it’s appropriate for some passengers who can’t afford to pay an additional charge for a seat to be less safe than other travelers,’ Klobuchar said."
Denver-based Frontier President and CEO Barry Biffle wrote a letter to Congress dated yesterday, May 6.
Biffle offered these “points of clarification”:
1. From the beginning of the pandemic, we have led the industry with safety steps, such as enhanced deep cleaning and sanitation of aircraft, including fogging disinfection, HEPA filters on all aircraft, requiring passenger health certifications during the check-in process, and being among the first airlines to require that all flight crews and passengers wear face coverings.
All of these important steps are designed to keep passengers healthy when flying Frontier.
2. Like other airlines, we have been fostering social distancing among passengers on our aircraft by allowing them to spread out among seats and rows.
However, this week we are exceeding 50 percent systemwide load factors and trending higher on many flights over the coming weeks. Social distancing becomes more problematic as flights fill up and, therefore, we chose to require face masks for everyone.
While we believe this ensures safety, we knew some customers wanted more peace of mind and therefore we introduced the More Room product that guaranteed an empty middle seat.
3. Blocking all middle seats or one-third of all airline seats would materially change airline economics and cause airfares to increase by 50 percent to maintain the same revenue.
This would not only be harmful to consumers but would cause further strain on the economy at a time when our country can least afford it.
The smaller communities we provide critical service to in states like Montana, for example, would be especially harmed with higher fares and it would also hurt jobs at Frontier. We recognize the concerns raised that we are profiting from safety and this was never our intent. We simply wanted to provide our customers with an option for more space.
However, we will rescind the seat price increase associated with the More Room product and revert to our former seat assignment pricing.
We will leave the seats blocked which were associated with this product and honor purchases made by all customers who bought the product up until now. Further, we will continue to be consistent with the broader industry and make best efforts to ensure as much social distancing as possible throughout the aircraft."
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