image: Airbus
We analyzed 2026 taxi times at US airports, and an alarming data point immediately stood out. Frontier Airlines has a taxi time problem across the top ten US airports. How big is the problem? These ten airports account for 21% of the airline’s flights. These top ten airports have an average taxi time of 36.1 minutes. This problem can also be refined to show that this taxi time represents 21% of the total elapsed flight time.
US DOT data shows Frontier costs run at $143/minute. The industry average taxi time is 27.6 minutes, so those 8.5 minutes could cost the airline $1,215. Over the period tracked, there have been 14,461 Frontier flights. Potentially $17.6m in extra taxi time. Over four months, Frontier’s extra taxi time is worth about 20% of a heavily discounted A321neo’s price. (As they say, ‘prices may vary’)
Prefer immediate full access?
Subscribe for complete analysis + ongoing updates
Want this applied to your fleet or portfolio?
We can run a focused 15–20 minute walkthrough on the implications for your specific programs or risk exposure — or put together a custom subscription proposal.
