Frontier goes public with a $266M market entry

Delaware’s only commercial passenger airline, Frontier Airlines, raised $266 million in its initial public offering last week, the Delaware Business Times reported, selling 15 million shares at a price point of $19 per share under the Nasdaq designation ULCC (“ultra-low-cost carrier”).

Previously, Denver-based Frontier was owned by private equity firm Indigo Partners. The airline first began offering flights to and from New Castle Airport in 2013, then ended its Delaware service in 2015. In January 2020, it announced its return to New Castle Airport. After postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it restarted the service on February 11, 2021.

Frontier flights from New Castle go to U.S. cities including Orlando, Atlanta, Denver and Las Vegas.

The lead bookrunners for the proposed offering were Citigroup, Barclays, Deutsche Bank Securities, Morgan Stanley and Evercore ISI. Additional bookrunners were BofA Securities, JPMorgan, Nomura, UBS Investment Bank, Cowen and Raymond James.

In addition to Frontier’s commercial flights, New Castle Airport is a hub for flight schools, including FlyGateway, and is frequently used by President Joe Biden.