Frontier Airlines said Monday it has extended the lease on its Denver headquarters building to 2020.
The airline, which since last October has been a unit of Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings Inc., touted the lease extension as a sign that the airline continues to “call Denver home,” even though the top executives running the carrier are in Indianapolis.
Republic announced Jan. 14 that it was consolidating “all executive management functions” of Frontier and its sister carrier, Midwest Airlines, in Indianapolis. Asked at the time in an interview if the announcement meant that Frontier’s headquarters was moving to Indianapolis, Republic spokesman Carlo Bertolini said, “That’s a fair assessment.”
At the time, Republic said that several Frontier executives — including Sean Menke, a Republic executive VP who had been CEO of Frontier, as well as CFO Ted Christie and VP and general counsel Matt Henry — were leaving.
But Republic continues to refer to Denver as Frontier’s “commercial headquarters.”
“This lease extension further cements our commitment to our hometown, Denver,” Ian Arthur, Republic’s VP of marketing and branding, said in Monday’s announcement. “Denver continues to serve as Frontier’s largest operating hub.”
The announcement said that Frontier’s customer service, in-flight administration and training, marketing, revenue management, and scheduling and planning teams will continue to work out of the 70,000-square-foot 7001 Tower Road building, which Frontier has used since 2001.
It said that Frontier is moving its customer relations and reservations teams into the building this month, and will have more than 500 people working there after that.
