Hello, team Inflight! Hope this message reaches you well, wherever you are! I’m excited to connect with you and look back at some exciting things we achieved in October. It’s been a busy month, full of events and initiatives, all of which point to the incredible journey we’re on together within Team Inflight. Let's dive right in!
Breast Cancer Awareness Month
To start, I want to look back at our Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Many of you participated in raising awareness across our network, showing our support for a cause very dear to all of us. I’m proud of our team for coming together to raise awareness and make a difference. These kinds of initiatives speak to the heart of who we are as a team, a company: compassionate, unified, and committed to making a positive impact beyond our day-to-day. Well done everyone!
Operational Performance & On-Time Goals
as you know, we are passionate about our on time performance and I want to go over our results and some topics that drive our operational performance. I want to start by thanking you for your hard work, in helping our operation move in the right direction, and it’s making a real impact on customer satisfaction. I know I have said it before but I want to make sure you understand we are not only asking flight attendants to be on time but keeping everyone within the organisation to be accountable to be on time! Closing the door at D-10 is not just a target—it’s an essential part of our promise to passengers. And as a reminder, if you’re ready to board, with all the required crew onboard and all checks and briefing completed, let’s board early and get back home early! So now let’s talk results and look at the October performance. Let’s start with the positive: well done for keeping our turns on time! We achieved at 95.17% turn time, beating our target of 95%! Well done and let’s continue to turn our aircrafts everyday to be on time or catch up time to give back to the system! However, we have some real headwinds for our head start, with a result of 98.49% vs our target of 99.5%. Some of the drivers for these delays are certain crew reporting late for duty, delays to complete our Passenger Count on time as well as late special requests. Being prepared, focused and communicative is key to ensure we hit our targets. We owe it to our customers to be on time and all have great flying days! So once again, thank you for your focus and let’s keep raising the bar when it comes to our on time performance!
I will also touch quickly on dependability as we are seeing a spike in absences for the last few weeks, resulting in an 11% absence rate vs our goal of 9%. While hurricanes have driven certain absences, the data also shows us that over time, we have consistent recorded spikes of number of absences on Fridays and Sundays, which coincides with our more productive flying days. Let’s all play our part to make sure we protect the operation by being prepared and taking care of ourselves.
October Events: Roadshow, In-Flight Strategy Day, Leadership Summit, and Manager Meetings
October was also packed with pivotal events that have set the foundation for the future of our Inflight Experience department. We had our Inflight Experience Roadshow in Denver, which allowed us to connect with many of you across different bases, talking about our shared goals, celebrating our successes, and engaging in open dialogue. Our flight attendants had the opportunity to participate in a masterclass with our Credit Card partner Barclays where they truly learned an the value of participating in the program, the positive impact of the changes to the program and the increase of applications approvals due to customer demographic changes. All participants received gift cards for participating and also meet with various departments to ask any questions they may have had. The energy and positivity was palpable and we celebrated many winners during a drawing event at the end of our tradeshow.
We also hosted our First Ever Inflight Strategy Day, where a select group of flight attendants and Leadership collaborated to define the future of the inflight experience department. We took a deep dive into what it means to be a flight attendant at Frontier, discussing the legacy we’re building and the evolving role of our team as we adapt to industry changes and customer needs. We also started the conversation around our proposed new Mission statement and vision for our flight attendants that we will roll out at the beginning of 2025. The collaboration was truly remarkable, with honest and unfiltered conversation that truly demonstrated we are aligned under the same goals.
We also hosted our annual Leadership Summit, bringing together our leadership team to align on our company vision and the direction we’re heading in. These conversations were crucial for ensuring that we’re all moving forward with a unified strategy that are aligned with our flight attendant's expectations and business objectives. In addition, our Above In-Flight Experience meeting brought managers together to share insights, discuss challenges, and strengthen our commitment to delivering exceptional service. These gatherings highlighted our dedication to improving every aspect of our operation and to making sure our teams are supported, motivated, and aligned under a common vision.
Contract Negotiations
I know many of you are eager for updates on our contract negotiations. This is an important topic, and I want to emphasize that we have been working diligently with the AFA as part of our regular contract negotiations. On October 24, 2022, AFA filed an application with the National Mediation Board ("NMB"), for mediation services under Section 6 of the Railway Labor Act. On October 28, the NMB assigned NMB Mediator Michael Kelliher to oversee our future negotiations. Mediator Kelliher joined the NMB in 2010, with 30-years experience in the airline industry. As our negotiations are now under the supervision of the NMB, future sessions will be set by Mediator Kelliher. While we don't yet have any dates on the calendar, we look forward to working with AFA and Mediator Kelliher to negotiating in good faith to achieve an agreement that supports our flight attendants and ensures the continued success of our company.
Testing New Products with Crew
As you know, I am truly passionate about evolving our onboard retail offering and always looking for ways to improve the customer experience on board, and this month, we had a crew join us to test a new product at Retail In Motion's headquarters in Dallas. This is part of our ongoing commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction. By involving you, our flight attendants, in these trials, we want to make sure that our offerings not only meet customer expectations but also align with your feedback and experience on the front lines. In parallel, we are continuing our deep dive into sales data and reports we are getting to evaluate the effectiveness of our service. It is very clear that we still have a lot of work to do to improve our sales numbers, but I want to tell you, every single one of you can help in their own way by taking simple actions: follow the new PA guidelines to create awareness for our customers about the products we offer; conduct service by taking carts out into the aisles; Do not ask robotic sentences such as "Anything for purchase? but instead ask every single customer "What are you having from our menu today?". We need to stop certain bad habits and take the carts out for every single service. Here at frontier, we do not do a walking service with the menu, we do not do call bell services, we take the carts out. With our data team, we are monitoring this extremely closely as we know this is the biggest driver of having effective sales, just showing up with the products in the cabin in an engaging way. Our competitors, with the exact same customer profile has double the sales, with higher prices than us. So the issue is not our customers, it is how we conduct service. By increasing sales, we will then be able to improve the types of products we can introduce and improve on our sales. Let's create a true momentum and break our cycle and becoming to be known for our legendary onboard service by our customers!
Ambersky Competition
Another highlight this month was the announcement of Frontier Airlines to be the first North American airline to ever participate in the Ambersky event in Riga, Latvia. The Ambersky event is an exciting opportunity for flight attendants to showcase their passion for promoting our onboard retail program in front of the best selling airlines in the world. This event is more than a competition, but truly is a way to kickstart our strong focus to increase onboard sales, and celebrate your dedication, and passion to elevate our onboard experience. To win a chance to represent your colleagues, all you need to do is to sell sell sell and provide your legendary customer service to our customers and you'll be on your way to Riga Latvia! Competitions like this remind us of the talent and enthusiasm that you bring to Frontier every day, and it’s inspiring to see you go above and beyond to make our flights memorable for our passengers
Looking Ahead to November and Beyond
I want to end up by once again sharing my passion for our inflight community, and as a forever flight attendant myself, we have a unique opportunity ahead to shake things up and take the airline we love to new height. As we look ahead, let’s build on the incredible work we accomplished in October.
We’re gearing up for the holiday season, which is always a busy time, but I know we’re ready to meet this incredible opportunity to connect families and loved ones across our entire network and make long lasting positive impressions on our customer, and win them over for their future travel decisions. From operational improvements to our continued focus on safety, dependability, dependability, and customer experience, we’re setting ourselves up for even greater success. I want each of you to feel proud of the progress we’re making and I am beyond confident in the direction we’re heading.”
Together, we’re building a stronger, more connected New Frontier, and I couldn’t be prouder to be lead you to this new era. Wishing you all happy flying and blue skies ahead!
