Our Q4 ’24 first place winner takes the prize for chutzpah. 

It was Frontier Airlines, after joining in on the rush to add on what we know junk fees – a la carte charges for things that used to be/ought to be part of the basic service like…leg room, whose CEO called passengers hoping to avoid those charges “shoplifters”.

According to UK newspaper, Metro, Frontier CEO Barry Biffle is leading the charge on unbundling services for air travel and then charging a fee for each, like carry-on luggage. Biffle, who makes $8,580,000 each year, said of those who seek to get around the fees: ‘These are shoplifters”.

Congress, at least the last one, sought to shine a light on and prevent the imposition of junk fees. Last December, “the Federal Trade Commission announced a final Junk Fees Rule to prohibit bait-and-switch pricing and other tactics used to hide total prices and bury junk fees in the live-event ticketing and short-term lodging industries. These unfair and deceptive pricing practices harm consumers and undercut honest businesses.” 

At Frontier, there is evidence that beyond abusing its passengers with fees the airline taxes their patience with delays and missed deadlines. A recent report found that the “U.S. Transportation Department said in its most recent report that Frontier in August was ninth out of 10 major airlines for on-time arrivals, with 65% on time at the 80 airports it serves, and ranks seventh for the first eight months of 2024.” 

Last December, Quartz reported that “a Senate investigation report criticized the airline industry for squeezing billions of dollars out of its customers above and beyond the cost of their tickets.“ They put the number at $12 billion for seat fees, alone, across the industry.

Anyone who has traveled by air is well-aware of the service fees that have sprouted up at the airport. But to rub your own customers’ noses in it is truly a bit of bad business. This isn’t just bad business but a bad business model.