Yesterday, September 8, Frontier’s last remaining Airbus A319 made its final flight. The aircraft, with registration N949FR and which was delivered to the company in 2006, flew from Nashville to Denver on its last passenger service.
Flight 391 departed from Nashville at 16:10 UTC (11:10 local time) and arrived at Denver 2:24 hours later. During the flight, there was a special announcement, and gifts were given to the customers -including a certificate- to mark the occasion. Then, at 1:50 p.m., it made its final journey to Tampa airport, where it will be stored.
N949FR, which carried an Erma the Ermine graphic on its tail, flew for Frontier for more than 15 years. In total, 53 Airbus A319s operated for Frontier: the first was delivered to the company in 2001, and the last, N954FR, in March 2013.
The retirement of the A319 is part of the airline’s fleet modernization plan. Daniel Shurz, Senior Commercial Vice President of Frontier Airlines, said in a press release that «the retirement of our last A319 holds much symbolism in our pursuit of a greener future.»
Shurz added that «Our fleet is already the most fuel-efficient in the United States. As we continue to transition to A320neo family aircraft, this will improve even further.» Frontier operates a fleet of Airbus A320 family aircraft with an average age of 4.1 years, including the largest A320neo fleet in North America. The carrier owns a backlog of about 140 aircraft to continue expanding its fleet.
