Frontier Airlines

Is Frontier safe to fly?

Yes. Frontier is a no-frills airline, but its safety record is not no-frills. In its history no passenger or crew member has died in an accident and no aircraft has been written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary, and its fleet averages about five years, the youngest of any large US airline. We score it 85, just behind JetBlue and well ahead of Southwest. The deductions are for a cluster of events since 2025, including a death on the runway at Denver that was not the airline's doing.

The runway death at Denver

At about 11:20 pm on 8 May 2026, Frontier 4345, an A321neo for Los Angeles, was rolling for take-off on runway 17L when it struck a person on the runway. Airport officials said the person had climbed the perimeter fence and was hit about two minutes later; the fence was found intact. The person was at least partly drawn into an engine, which caught fire.

The crew stopped the aircraft and, with smoke in the cabin, ordered an evacuation down the slides. All 224 passengers and seven crew got out; 12 passengers had minor injuries and five went to hospital. Some passengers said they waited several minutes in the smoke before the doors opened, and the NTSB said it was looking at whether the evacuation needs a full investigation.

Under ICAO rules, a death caused by an aircraft is an accident, so this counts. But the dead person was a trespasser, and nothing reported so far suggests the crew could have avoided the collision. We weigh it lightly; the evacuation questions matter more for Frontier.

Other serious incidents

• 15 April 2025, San Juan: Flight 3506 from Orlando, an A321, landed hard on its first attempt at San Juan, damaging the aircraft and leaving debris on the runway. The crew went around and landed on the third attempt. No one was hurt, and the airport closed for a time.
• 12 July 2025, Denver: an A320neo hit its tail during a landing and go-around, then landed on another runway.
• 8 April 2026, Los Angeles: a Frontier A321 heading for Atlanta nearly hit two service trucks that crossed in front of it. The FAA is investigating.

On enforcement, the FAA proposed a $380,000 fine in 2010 after Frontier changed cabin layouts without updating exit placards, and a $474,000 fine in 2018 for flights with incomplete emergency medical kits. Neither involved an accident, but both are the kind of paperwork lapse a regulator watches for.

The youngest fleet in the US

Frontier's 10-K counted 176 aircraft at the end of 2025, all leased Airbus A320-family jets:

Type	Aircraft	Average age
A321neo	60	2 years
A320neo	89	6 years
A321ceo	21	9 years
A320ceo	6	10 years

A single fly-by-wireFly-by-wireA flight control system in which the pilot's inputs go to computers, which then move the control surfaces. Many such systems also stop unsafe manoeuvres.More in the glossary family keeps pilot training simple, and new aircraft still under warranty need less heavy maintenance. The Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines on the neos have needed extra inspections across the industry, which keeps some aircraft on the ground but is a reliability issue rather than a safety one.

Denver and beyond

About one in five Frontier flights touches Denver. The airport is well equipped, with long runways, but it sits at 5,400 feet, where aircraft need more runway, and the Front Range brings strong winds in winter, hail and thunderstorms in summer, and heavy snow in winter. The rest of the network is mostly leisure routes to Florida, Las Vegas, the Caribbean and Mexico.

Tips for Frontier passengers

• In an evacuation, leave everything. Frontier charges for cabin bags, so passengers often carry everything in one personal item; it still stays behind.
• Read the safety card. All Frontier aircraft are A320s or A321s, but exit positions differ between the two; count the rows to yours.
• In Denver in summer, expect delays for storms and accept them: hail and wind shear are the hazards being avoided.

How we scored it

The fleet (92), averaging about five years, is younger than Alaska's (10.6) or Delta's (14.8), and the accident record (86) has no passenger death. Serious incidents (74) and the Denver operating environment (80) pull the score down. Compare Ryanair, Europe's largest low-cost airline.