Frontier Airlines recently announced its plans to outsource about one third of its workforce. The carrier is planning to replace almost 1300 employees with contract workers. This outsourcing move will include replacement for almost 1160 jobs in Denver and 140 in Milwaukee. Alongside, Frontlier Airlines is planning to hire a unit of Swissport International to manage the carrier’s ground operations at the Denver Airport, which has been the largest hub for Frontier. The positions of 140 Milwaukee reservations workers will be outsourced to a private company based in Nashville, as per The Associated Press reports.
Prior to its announcement for outsourcing its workforce, the airline said its total number of employees to be 3800 comprising of pilots, mechanics, cabin crew, and others. Todd Lehmacher, airline’s spokesperson says the company would be giving priority to the affected employees for interviews to get jobs with the contractors. As quoted by ABC 7 of Denver, Lehmacher says, “It was a difficult but necessary decision to transition the management of these departments to business partners who specializes in these areas." The statement also says, “This announcement by no means is a reflection of the service or level of work provided by the team members.”
The company’s decision however was slammed by The Transport Workers Union that represents carrier’s ramp workers. "It's unnecessary to eliminate the company's ramp operations at a time when airlines are earning record profits, the price of aviation fuel is dropping and passenger loads are rising," Steve Roberts, director of organizing for the union, said to the Denver Post. "This is bad business and bad for customers,” he added.
