Frontier COO quits airline in 2nd high-level departure

Frontier Airlines says its chief operating officer has left the company, the second high-level departure in less than a month at the budget airline.

A Frontier spokesman confirmed Monday that Bill Meehan stepped down last week and was replaced temporarily by Jim Nides, the company's vice president of flight operations.

Meehan joined Frontier in 2014 after being CEO of aircraft-maintenance provider Pemco and holding executive jobs at Continental Airlines. He left less than two weeks after the exit of Deborah Price, Frontier's vice president of customer experience. Frontier spokesman Jim Faulkner said both departures were due to personal reasons and were unrelated to complaints about widespread cancellations and delays after a winter storm in December. He said Frontier should have canceled more flights and rebooked passengers before the storm hit, but it was caught off guard by the amount of snow.

Frontier's previous CEO, Dave Siegel, resigned in May 2015 after complaints about the airline soared. Denver-based Frontier ranks 10th among the 12 biggest US airlines at on-time performance, with one in every four flights arriving late in the latest 12-month figures from the Department of Transportation.

Frontier, like Spirit Airlines, charges low fares but relatively more in fees than many larger airlines. The New York Times reported last week that Frontier hired bankers to prepare an initial public offering of stock that it hopes will raise about $500 million. Frontier declined to comment on the report.(AP)