Indigo Partners, LLC is an American

private equity firm A private equity firm or private equity company (often described as a financial sponsor) is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of a Startup company, startup or of an existin ...

which has a controlling interest in the American

Frontier Airlines Frontier Airlines, Inc. is a major American ultra low-cost airline headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It operates flights to over 120 destinations in the United States, Caribbean, Mexico and Central America, and employs more than 5,000 staff. ...

and Chilean low-cost JetSmart, as well as holding stakes in Mexican budget airline

Volaris Volaris (legally ''Concesionaria Vuela Compañía de Aviación S.A.B. de C.V.'') is a Mexican low-cost airline based in Santa Fe, Mexico City, Santa Fe, Álvaro Obregón, Mexico City, Álvaro Obregón, Mexico City with its operating bases in Canc ...

and European (Hungarian) low-cost carrier

Wizz Air {{Infobox airline , airline = Wizz Air Holdings Plc. , IATA = , ICAO = , callsign = , aoc = , hubs = , focus_cities = , frequent_flyer = {{ubl, class=nowrap , Wizz All You Can Fly , Wizz Discount Club , Wizz Privilege Pass , ...

. The company had a partnership with Enerjet when it launched the now defunct Canadian ultra-low-cost carrier Lynx Air. Indigo Partners was founded by Bill Franke and has set up a number of ultra-low-cost airlines around the world. It is headquartered in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

History

At the November 2017

Dubai Air Show The Dubai Airshow () is a biennial air show held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, in cooperation with Dubai Civil Aviation ...

, Indigo Partners signed a memorandum of understanding for 430

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

Aircraft: 273

A320neo The Airbus A320neo family is an incremental development of the A320 family of narrow-body airliners produced by Airbus. The A320neo family (''neo'' being Greek for "new", as well as an acronym for "new engine option") is based on the enhance ...

s and 157 A321neos for $49.5 billion at list prices: 146 aircraft will go to

, 134 to

, 80 to

and 70 to JetSmart. Wizz will get 72 A320neo and 74 A321neo, Frontier 100 A320neo and 34 A321neo, Volaris 46 A320neo and 34 A321neo and JetSmart 56 A320neo and 14 A321neo. Deliveries will begin in 2021, mostly in 2025-26 from

Toulouse, France Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

and

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobil ...

, U.S.

previously ordered 110 A321neos at the 2015 Paris Airshow and its fleet will grow to 300 aircraft by 2025. Frontier received its first Airbus from Mobile in 2018 and its fleet will triple to 200, flying 50 million passengers in 2026. On November 29, 2018, Indigo Partners reached a preliminary agreement to buy Icelandic low-cost carrier WOW Air after

Icelandair Group Icelandair Group hf. is an Icelandic travel industry corporation, the owner and holding company of the airline Icelandair and several other travel industry companies in Iceland. The group's headquarters are in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland. The cor ...

dropped its takeover. However, on March 22, 2019, it was announced that Indigo Partners withdrew its offer to buy Wow Air. On November 14, 2021, Indigo Partners ordered 255 A321s. In 2022, Indigo Partners attempted to merge its majority-owned Frontier subsidiary with fellow US-based low cost carrier

Spirit Airlines Spirit Airlines, Inc. is an American ultra-low cost airline headquartered in Dania Beach, Florida, in the Miami metropolitan area. Spirit operates scheduled flights throughout the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Spirit was the ...

. The planned merger with Spirit fell apart as

JetBlue JetBlue Airways Corporation, stylized as jetBlue, is an American major airline headquartered in Long Island City, in Queens, New York City. Primarily a point-to-point carrier, JetBlue's network features six focus cities including its main hub ...

offered an all-cash offer of $3.7 billion which was higher than Frontier's offer of more than $2.6 billion in stock and cash.

Fleet

References

Private equity firms of the United States Companies based in Phoenix, Arizona Financial services companies established in 2002 {{US-company-stub

History

Fleet

Further reading

References