Spirit Airlines expands to Pittsburgh, adds 7 new routes
Spirit Airlines announced a major expansion into Pittsburgh, which will become the 61st city in the carrier’s network.
The discount airline will enter the market with seven non-stop routes. Spirit’s first Pittsburgh flights launch May 25, when it begins daily service to both Dallas/Fort Worth and Myrtle Beach, S.C. The carrier will add five more routes – to Fort Lauderdale, Houston Bush Intercontinental, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Orlando – by July 13.
The new Pittsburgh service also will help make Spirit a significant player in western Pennsylvania, where the airline already flies from the tiny Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in nearby Latrobe.
Spirit currently flies nonstop from Latrobe to five destinations, including three (Fort Lauderdale, Myrtle Beach and Orlando) that will overlap with its new service from Pittsburgh.
The Latrobe and Pittsburgh airports are only about 65 miles apart, bracketing the Pittsburgh metro area. Pittsburgh, the region’s primary airport, sits about 20 miles west of downtown. Latrobe, where Spirit is the sole passenger airline, is about 45 miles east of downtown Pittsburgh.
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Despite the overlap at the two Pittsburgh-area airports, Spirit says it intends to keep flying from both. Prior to the Pittsburgh announcement, Spirit had grown in western Pennsylvania by developing Latrobe as something of a secondary airport for the region. Spirit began flying there in 2011, about two years after Northwest ended its route to Detroit and left Latrobe's Arnold Palmer Airport without regular airline service.
“We see Latrobe and Pittsburgh as two totally distinct and different airports,” Spirit spokesman Paul Berry says to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, suggesting the Latrobe airport's free parking would remain an advantage for travelers considering flights from Arnold Palmer. “They're going to complement each other. It gives the people of the region more choices.”
Latrobe officials struck an optimistic tune that Spirit's plans would hold.
“The more the merrier. I think it complements Latrobe. I think it will be a great thing for everyone,” Gabe Monzo, executive director of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority that operates Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, says to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
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At Pittsburgh, however, the new Spirit flights also continue a strong run of new service for the airport, which has seen its number of non-stop routes soar from 37 to 68 during the past two years, according to the Tribune-Review. The airline also has landed many new carriers during that period, including Frontier, Canadian carrier Porter, OneJet, Iceland’s WOW Air and Condor of Germany.
“Our success has been swift,” Pittsburgh airport CEO Christina Cassotis adds to the Post-Gazette.
As for Spirit, it was one of the nation's three big “ultra-low-cost carriers." The business model of such airlines – which also include Frontier and Allegiant – features low base fares but extra charges for everything from carry-on bags to water. The carriers contend the pricing structure allows fliers to pay only for the products and services they wish to use. They've increasingly been encroaching on major full-service airlines.That's prompted the USA's "big three" of American, Delta and United to fight back by introducing "Basic Economy" fares, which are meant to compete with the Frontiers and Spirits of the world on price.
Scroll down for the details of Spirit’s new Pittsburgh service:
Dallas/Fort Worth
One daily round-trip flight begins May 25
Myrtle Beach, S.C. (seasonal service)
One daily round-trip flight begins May 25
Fort Lauderdale
Three weekly flights begin June 15
Las Vegas
One daily round-trip flight begins June 22
Orlando
One daily round-trip flight begins June 22
Houston Bush Intercontinental
One daily round-trip flight begins July 13
Los Angeles
One daily round-trip flight begins July 13
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