Spirit Airlines has announced that it is adding seven new destinations from Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) starting in spring 2022. The seven new routes will join growth on one existing route and help broaden the airline’s network from the airport and will come in time to target summer leisure travelers.
Spirit Airlines adds seven new routes from PHL
Spirit Airlines has announced today seven new routes from Philadelphia:
- New Orleans (MSY) with daily flights from February 16th
- Aguadilla, Puerto Rico (BQN) with four flights per week from April 20th
- Nashville (BNA) with daily flights from May 11th
- Houston (IAH) with daily flights from May 11th
- Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (PUJ) with four flights per week from May 18th
- Montego Bay, Jamaica (MBJ) with three flights per week from May 18th
- Oakland (OAK) with daily flights from May 18th
Spirit will also increase service to Cancun, Mexico (CUN). Starting on April 20th, the airline will operate daily flights to the Mexican beach destination from Philadelphia.
Matt Klein, Spirit’s Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, stated the following on the airline’s growth at PHL:
“Philadelphia has been a great partner of Spirit Airlines for a long time, and we’re thankful to the airport team for enabling this opportunity to add many more popular, nonstop destinations for our Guests. This expansion is particularly exciting because of the variety of destinations stretching from the Pacific Coast, to popular spots in the Southern US, and three new options for Caribbean getaways.”
When all of these routes launch, Spirit will serve 20 destinations out of Philadelphia. This is a sizable improvement from the airline’s first destinations out of PHL starting in 2013 when it only flew to Dallas (DFW), Las Vegas (LAS), and Myrtle Beach (MYR).
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The competitive landscape
With these seven new routes, Spirit will be competing against a few different airlines:
- New Orleans: American Airlines and Frontier Airlines
- Nashville: American, Frontier, and Southwest Airlines
- Houston: American, Frontier, and United
- Punta Cana: American and Frontier
- Montego Bay: American and Frontier
Two routes are entirely new points out of Philadelphia. These are Aguadilla and Oakland. However, Puerto Rico is already well-served from Philadelphia. The San Francisco Bay Area is connected to Philadelphia via San Francisco (SFO), though Aguadilla and Oakland are more convenient airports for some segments of the market, meaning Spirit will not be completely overlapping on some of those routes. In fact, it will be serving both San Juan (SJU), which is Puerto Rico’s primary gateway, and Aguadilla simultaneously.
Philadelphia is a major hub for American Airlines and a major city for Frontier Airlines. Spirit has shown a willingness to go toe-to-toe against major airlines and other low-cost carriers and succeed. Recently, Spirit Airlines started flights from Miami (MIA), rounding out its South Florida position, which is dominated by Fort Lauderdale (FLL).
The next round of growth from Spirit
Spirit’s route network continues to grow. Central America and the Caribbean are key geographies for the airline and have major traffic flows from the US, especially among leisure travelers.
None of the destinations added out of Philadelphia are new for Spirit Airlines. In fact, in several of them, the airline is already a known presence with sizable operations. This includes cities like Houston and New Orleans. While Spirit does sell some connections, most of those are targeted over Florida down to points in Latin America like Colombia and Peru or other destinations in Central America and the Caribbean where it does not have a sizable array of operations.
