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News / Spirit Airlines expands its network from New York and Atlanta with several routes
Several of the new routes are seasonal and have been added for winter
Spirit Airlines' network is set to grow in November. According to schedule data from Cirium, the carrier has added five routes to its network in November, focusing on New York and Atlanta.
Adding new routes from New York and Atlanta
Once a week, airline schedule changes are uploaded into Cirium's Diio Mii tool, which is how we find out when routes have been added or dropped from an airline's network. Through the tool, we found that Delta was significantly reducing its flights from Miami to Havana and several other recent stories. This week's report from Cirium shows Spirit is launching several routes from LaGuardia Airport in New York and Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Spirit will start flying from LaGuardia to Atlanta, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, and Palm Beach International Airport. November 5th will mark the launch of services on the three routes. Spirit previously flew between LaGuardia and O'Hare but ended its service in September 2020. The airline's schedule shows it will resume flying with its Airbus A319s and Airbus A321s.
Never before has Spirit connected LaGuardia to Atlanta or Palm Beach, and it will not be the sole carrier on the two routes. Spirit will face competition from JetBlue, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, and Southwest Airlines to Atlanta. The carrier will have the smallest market share on the route with its daily flights but will increase competition as it becomes the fifth airline to connect the cities.
Spirit will face competition on the Palm Beach route but only from two airlines - JetBlue and Delta. The airline will have the smallest market share as with the Atlanta route, with its competitors having more than 4x the number of flights. The A319s and A320s will be used to connect the two cities.
Spirit is also launching a new seasonal route from Atlanta to Fort Myers. From November 15th, it will send its younger fleet of A320neos and A319s to Fort Myers. The ultra-low-cost carrier will join Delta and Southwest with service to Fort Myers, bringing the total offering on the route to 567 flights in both directions in November.
Additional winter increases
Fort Lauderdale is an essential city in Spirit’s network and will be very important to JetBlue should the merger between the two carriers be approved. Also, from November 15th, Spirit will resume daily service between Hartford, Connecticut, and Fort Lauderdale.
The last time Spirit connected the two cities was in May 2022, when it had a 27.4% market share while competing with JetBlue. As it resumes service in November, it will have a slightly higher market share at 27.59% and compete with JetBlue and Southwest.
During winter, Spirit will also increase services on other routes from LaGuardia. From November to March 2024, that airline's services to Detroit and Fort Lauderdale will increase from three daily flights to four. Miami will also see two daily flights from LaGuardia instead of one.