Spirit Airlines eyes more connecting flights, less reliance on Florida as it attempts business turnaround

26.03.2024 - 13:51 / thepointsguy.com / Airlines

Spirit Airlines is moving forward again after several years of "inertia" following the coronavirus pandemic and the carrier's failed merger attempt with JetBlue, chief commercial officer Matt Klein said.

Top of the list for the Florida-based carrier is returning to the black after accumulating more than $2 billion in net losses since 2020. A big part of that turnaround is reworking Spirit's route map in order to boost revenue and cut unnecessary expenses.

That means you can expect more connecting flights in places like Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) and Las Vegas' Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) and less flying to the competitive — and increasingly delay-prone — Florida market beginning this summer, Klein said on the sidelines of the Routes Americas conference March 20.

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"We had a lot of curveballs thrown our way in the last couple of years," he said. "We were stuck in neutral for a while for a variety of reasons. ... You can't stand still, you've got to move forward."

The pandemic. A failed merger. Issues with Pratt & Whitney engines that have grounded 15 airplanes and counting. The list of challenges Spirit, once one of the most profitable airlines in the U.S., has faced is long.

Not to mention, the carrier has $1.3 billion in debt due next year. That's significantly more than the $863 million in cash that it had on hand at the end of December.

The airline is still growing, but its schedule will be flat to grow in the "mid-single digits," or around 5%, this year. That compares to 15% year-over-year growth in 2023.

"We're going to start looking at doing some more intentional connectivity in some cities," Klein said. "The reason for that is being able to try some new routes out, or bring back some routes we've done in the past. If [the routes] have proper connectivity, that allows for more revenue generation."

Fort Lauderdale, a large gateway to the Caribbean and Latin America for Spirit, and Las Vegas are cities where it could expand flight connections, Klein said. Other unnamed cities could also see more connectivity, though he declined to name any additional markets.

Spirit plans to unveil an updated summer schedule that includes more flight connections in the next few weeks, Klein said.

Some routes Spirit previously flew from Fort Lauderdale but does not today include Asheville, North Carolina; Bucaramanga, Colombia; Jacksonville, Florida; Lima, Peru; and Panama City, according to Cirium Diio schedules.

"We're seeing some changes in Fort Lauderdale now — we're seeing some capacity get removed by a couple of competitors," Klein said of the market at the airport.

JetBlue, which