As almost every low-cost airline operating in North America, Dallas-based Frontier Airlines has been in transitionary period as it adapts to a rapidly-changing market.

At the start of the year, interim chief executive Jack Dempsey was appointed permanently in the role after former CEO Barry Biffle was unexpectedly forced to step down in December. At the start of December, the airline also announced dozens of new flights to popular holiday destinations in Florida and Mexico as part of its scheduling plans for 2026.

But as travelers look toward the rest of the year, some recently found themselves unable to book flights past April 2026. As first reported by local outlet ABC27, the Frontier website is blocking purchases for any flights beyond April 13 — a situation that immediately sparked customer speculation of a potential bankruptcy or shutdown.

Frontier Airlines says flights will be open for booking next week

Cirium flight data also shows that no Frontier flights are currently scheduled beyond that date.

“Obviously, there are a ton of flights between Denver and Southern California,” Orange County resident David Fourgues said to ABC. “[…] I can’t figure out what’s going on here. I’m ready to give them some money.”

A Frontier spokesperson shut these rumors down by saying that the routes will once again be available for purchase during the week of Jan. 19.

James Dempsey has been appointed as permanent CEO of Frontier Airlines in January 2026.

Frontier Airlines

“Final stages of solidifying our network-wide schedule extension”: Frontier

“We are in the final stages of solidifying our network-wide schedule extension and it will be released early this week,” the spokesperson said in a statement to TheStreet.

Other than the single comment, Frontier has not provided additional information on the schedule extension or why it was necessary to block the purchase of flights past April. The move is highly unusual, as airlines will generally try to keep selling any flights they intend to run.

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Some may think the scheduling issue makes the airline look unstable, but it could also be a strategy for reducing the need to issue refunds if a schedule changes later. This would be in line with the “schedule extension” explanation that Frontier gave for the canceled flights.

In November 2025, Frontier released a better-than-expected earnings report in which it reported a net loss of $77 million but updated its forecast for the last quarter of between $0.04 and $0.20 earnings per share.

By December, TheStreet, citing Bloomberg News, reported that Frontier and fellow low-cost competitor Spirit Airlines had renewed their talks about a potential merger. The two airlines had tried to merge twice before in 2022 and 2024, but plans ultimately fell apart and got blocked by a federal court over antitrust concerns.

No major developments on this front have emerged in 2026, but the future of the two airlines as they currently operate looks increasingly shaky. In the current market, rising operating costs mean that low-cost airlines can no longer set prices significantly lower than what mainstream airlines charge for basic economy.

Related: Frontier Airlines is no longer out a CEO