CHICAGO (Bloomberg) - Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc. said it expects a pretax loss of as much as 68 cents a share this quarter, excluding special items, as rising fuel costs erode earnings.

The Denver-based low-fare carrier is cutting its "indirect" workforce, paring expansion plans and evaluating its fleet size.

Frontier is paying 18 percent more for fuel in its fiscal third quarter than a year earlier, CEO Sean Menke said in a PR Newswire statement yesterday.