Spirit Airlines' Matt Klein at Routes Americas 2024 in Bogotá.
BOGOTA—Spirit Airlines is preparing a series of network adjustments designed to better navigate operational challenges in Florida and increase the number of connecting options in select U.S. cities.
Speaking at Routes Americas 2024 here in Bogotá, Executive Vice President and CCO Matt Klein said the planned changes would help the ULCC to better mitigate risks, optimize routes in light of Pratt & Whitney GTF engine issues and increase revenue generation.
The alterations are expected to be reflected in Spirit’s late-summer seasonal schedule. At present, flight reservations are unavailable from Aug. 6 onward.
“We don't want to promise guests a great on-time performance when they continuously have to deal with the operational issues we're seeing to and from Florida,” Klein said, citing air traffic control staffing shortages.
“Our guests want to go to Florida—but, if we can't operate properly, then we're going to have to rethink the network. If our costs go up because we can't operate the way we want to, we’re going to have to start moving things around.”
Klein explained that the changes would involve “some less risky things” like considering more day-of-week-driven routes, reviving some old routes and offering more “intentional connectivity” in certain cities.
“If they have proper connectivity, then that allows for more revenue generation,” he added. “It is something that Spirit has done in the past, but not necessarily had strategy around it.
“I’m not going to tell you that we're suddenly going to become a connecting carrier, because that's not who we are. But in some specific situations it can make sense—and we should be doing more of that.”
Spirit has already made a series of changes to its route network through August, reducing capacity in markets like Atlanta, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, and cutting routes from Boston and Cleveland.
The latest planned network restructure comes fewer than three weeks after Spirit’s proposed merger with JetBlue Airways was officially terminated. Since then, JetBlue also plans to eliminate a number of unprofitable routes from its network.
Starting from June 13, JetBlue will suspend service in Kansas City, Missouri; Bogotá; Quito, Ecuador; and Lima, Peru. Flights from New York Stewart International Airport, which have been suspended since 2020, will also not resume.
Los Angeles (LAX) and Florida's Fort Lauderdale (FLL) are among the airports that will also see route cuts, with six services being cancelled from LAX and seven from FLL.
“These moves will allow us to redeploy our fleet to increase frequencies on well-performing routes from JetBlue’s focus cities, while continuing to increase crucial ground time for our aircraft, reducing the chance of delays for our customers,” a statement from JetBlue says.
“The changes will also help us during a time when aircraft availability is limited—particularly with some of our aircraft grounded due to Pratt & Whitney GTF engine inspections.”
Related Content
