Frontier Airlines could be on the edge of a new Frontier after it won approval from the Department of Transportation (DOT) to use the word ‘Frontera’ as a brand name.

Why Frontier Airlines wants to use ‘Frontera’ as a brand name remains a mystery, but on Monday, the DOT published a notice of registration of trade name, which made Frontier’s plans public for the first time.

According to the notice, Frontier Airlines first approached the DOT on April 16, asking to use Frontera in at least part of its air transportation business. Under 14 CFR Part 215, Frontier was required first to tell the DOT of its plans and inform the department if its intended brand name was similar to any other airline.

In this case, Frontier told the DOT that it wasn’t aware of any name similarity issues, so the DOT went ahead and granted the Denver-based budget airline the right to use the Frontera brand name.

Frontera is, of course, the Spanish word for Frontier, so perhaps the carrier the airline is eyeing a big expansion into the Latin America market. Unfortunately, the airline did not immediately reply to a request for comment, so we might have to wait a little longer before Frontier is willing to officially announce its plans.

Founded in 1993 by ex-United Airlines pilots, Frontier now serves 100 destinations throughout the United States and a further 31 international destinations.

The carrier is now owned by Indigo Partners, a private equity firm that acquired Frontier in 2013 – the same company that owns Chilean ultra-low-cost carrier JetSmart and has a major stake in Mexico’s Volaris.

In 2022, Frontier announced plans to merge with rival budget carrier Spirit Airlines, but the carrier ended up losing out in a bidding war to JetBlue, which wanted to use Spirit’s Airbus A320 family fleet to expand its business.

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