William Franke

About Me

William Franke is the chairman of low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines and the owner of air transport-focused private equity firm Indigo Partners. Raised in Latin America, Franke attended law school at Stanford and then worked as an executive at firms including Valley National Bank and Circle K. He first got into the airline business as the CEO of America West Airlines from 1993 to 2001, turning the company into a low-cost carrier. He was an early investor in Ryanair; since starting Indigo Partners in 2002, he's invested in several airlines including Volaris, Wizz Air, and Spirit. He took Frontier public in April 2021; eight months later in February 2022, the firm announced a $6.6 billion merger with its rival Spirit Airlines. Spirit and Frontier terminated their merger agreement in July 2022, with Spirit shareholders instead agreeing to a merger with JetBlue three months later.