Feathers and Fur: A Guide to Frontier’s Animal Tails

Frontier Airlines is going to make Pittsburgh International Airport look a little wilder next spring. 

The ultra-low-cost carrier will begin nonstop service to Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia and Raleigh-Durham in May, joining existing service to Denver and Orlando, tripling Frontier’s Pittsburgh network. That means more Frontier planes — and more appearances of the airline’s famous animals on its aircraft tails — at PIT. 

Each plane in Frontier’s fleet features a unique animal on its tail. And with a current fleet of 135 aircraft, according to Planespotters.net, Frontier has a wide variety of species frolicking on its planes. 

How it all started 

The animal tails have been a part of Frontier’s branding since it first began operations in 1994. The Denver-based airline began adding animals to the tails of its early Boeing 737 fleet on regional routes from Denver International Airport. 

More animal tails joined the Frontier family in the 2000s when the airline expanded across the U.S. It also transitioned from 737s to newer Airbus aircraft that featured updated livery but kept the animal tails. 

As Frontier grew nationally, the carrier used the tails to market itself to travelers. The carrier ran humorous radio and television advertisements of its animal tails talking to each other, such as when Flip the Bottlenose Dolphin would always wonder how he kept getting routed to Chicago instead of sunny destinations or when Hector the Otter promoted the airline beginning its first flights to Mexico. 

In September 2014, Frontier announced it would transition to the ultra-low-cost carrier model and revealed its present livery. The animal tails were not only retained once again but were enhanced with a larger, modernized look. In addition, the new livery included the names of the animals more prominently underneath the cockpit.