SPIRIT AIRLINES INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION 2003-2018

SPIRIT AIRLINES INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION 2003-2018

Spirit airlines began as a trucking company named "CLIPPEST TRUCKING Co" in 1964 and the airline service was founded in 1983 under the name of Chapter One  providing travel  packages to Atlantic City, Las Vegas  and the Bahamas. The name was changed into Spirit Airlines in 1992

The international expansion started in 2003 with flights to Mexico  carrying 2832 passengers

In 2004, see table below , FLL-CUN is served on a yearly basis and flights to Santo Domingo  commence in December 2004. All flights are performed with a mixed fleet of MD81/82/83 and MD87 with a seating capacity up to 172 passengers
On 2004, the company transfers its HQ to FLL which will become a major international hub in the coming years


By Konstantin von Wedelstaedt - Gallery page http://www.airliners.net/photo/Spirit-Airlines/McDonnell-Douglas-MD-82/0481977/L Photo http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/7/7/9/0481977.jpg, GFDL 1.2, Link

2005 The transition to an all airbus begins with  the first deliveries of the A319 (124 seat capacity ) and A321 (185 seat capacity).
New services to Cancun from Detroit starts in April 2005 and are operated on a seasonal basis up to December with reduced services from September and no services in November .

The A319 starts flying to Cancun from Fort Lauderdale and Detroit in June 2005, whereas the A321 enters in service in May 2005 with rotations to  Cancun from  Fort Lauderdale.

May sees also the launch of flights between Fort Lauderdale and San Salvador in the Bahamas 

Fort-Lauderdale to Kingston Montego Bay and Punta Cana , flights to Nassau from New York  and from Orlando to Montego Bay are all launched in November 2005.

AIRBUS A319 in Gray scale livery used from 2002 to 2007


By Eddie Maloney, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link .


2006
Fort-Lauderdale-Montego Bay starts in January 2006
Fort Lauberdale-Grand Cayman starts in February on a yearly basis while Fort-Lauderdale-Grand Turk and Fort-Lauderdale-Providenciales, launched in th same month , are operated on a seasonal basis
Tampa-Cancun operates from mid June to mid August.
Passenger carried reach 740, 247 an increase of 71.2% compared to ro 2005
Destinations to the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica  are the most popular.
The A319 represented  59.2% of the flights and 63.9% of the available seat miles.
In 2006, Spirit exercised options to order 30 Airbus A320-200 aircraft for further expansion. Deliveries began in March 2010

2007
TPA-CUN seasonal flight was not "renewed" in summer 2007 together with LGA-NAS.MCO-MBJ did not make it past January 2007 Despite these monor stebacks , NK was able to launch a series of new routes in 2007
Orlando-Nassau launched in February is operated until April
Fort Lauderdale to Port-au-Prince was launched in march followed by FLL-SJO and FLL-SXM in April,
Guatemala City was served from both Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale on May 2007,
June sees the launch of FLL-LIM , followed by FLL-SAP and FLL-AUA on a seasonal basis.
Managua is linked to Fort Lauderdale in August whereas the year ends with flights to Freeport. launched in December
As a result flights skyrockets by 71.8%, Passengers by 72.8% whereas ASM and RPM more than doubled.
On March 6, 2007, Spirit began a transition to an ultra-low-cost carrier

 

2008
The company continues its expansion with FLL-Panama City launched in January , followed by flights to Cartagena its first destination in Colombia in May then by Port of Spain in June and Bogota in July
Sadly, the segments LAX-GUA , FLL-PLS and FLL-GCM are cut in January, July and September respectively  and the last flights to Kingston will be operated in December.

2009

DTW-CUN becomes a seasonal route, FLL-MDE (3rd destination in Colombia) starts in March and flights to Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic in June  and Armenia in Colombia in November.
FLL-POS segment ends in March 2009

2010
Expansion cools down with  Fort-Lauderdale -Barraquinlla the company's 5th destination in Colombia,, launched in July but services to Freeport are ended in May.

2011
DTW-CUN becomes an all year round route, flights to Toluca as well as to San Salvador are launched in June
Fort-Lauderdale -Barraquinlla is ended in March.

A Spirit Airlines Airbus A320 in the earlier blue paint scheme, used from 2007 until 2014.


By PlanespotterA320 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link


2012
FLL-KIN and FLL-NAS routes are both ended in October whereas  San Jose del Cabo is served from San Jose beginning November .
Flights to Toluca from Dallas are launched in June

2013
flights to Toluca from Dallas  launched in June 2012 end in January but are relaunched as seasonal flights in June (until September)
DFW-CUN and DFW-SJD are launched in April and June respectively
FLL-KIN is re-launched in May as a seasonal route

2014
A year of consolidation, DFW-TLC does not resume as seasonal flights in 2014 and DFW-SJD is cancelled in September . The weekly flights to ZSA are interrupted in August but resume in November as seasonal flights.

2015
A change of strategy occurs during 2015 when the company establishes  a secondary hub in Houston and starting from May 2015, flights are launched to several destinations : Managua, Cancun, San Salvador, San Pedro Sula, San Jose del Cabo, San Jose de Costa Rica and Toluca (operations from May to September 2015).

2016
The seasonal flights to ZSA are not resumed in 2016 , FLL-TLC ends in January . IAH-MGA.IAH-SAL and IAS-SJO  also end in September whereas FLL-HAV starts in December 2016
FLL-PUJ becomes an all year around route.

2017
2 routes are launched in November:  Baltimore and Chicago to Cancun .FLL-HAV is discontinued in May , and SAN-SJD in November. FLL-KIN becomes an all year around route.

2017 network map 32135 miles

A Spirit Airlines Airbus A321-200 in the current "Bare Fare" livery, introduced in 2014.


By Adam Moreira (AEMoreira042281) - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

2018

Spirit Airlines establishes a new hub  in Orlando and flights to the  following destinations are launched:
October : To Guatemala, San Salvador, San Pedro Sula , Santo Domingo, San Jose de Costa Rica and Panama City.
November :To  Bogota, Medellin and Cartagena
In addition to the above FLL-GYE is launched in March, Fort Lauderdale to Cap Haitien in April and Fort Lauderdale-Cali in December
From Houston the following are launched in October.
Houston-Guatemala City and Houston-San Salvador.
Moreover, Baltimore-Montego Bay starts in March, Newark-Santo Domingo in November and  Detroit-Bogota is launched in December.
As a result of this unprecedented expansion , yearly flights increased by 34.3% , passengers by 28.3% and RPM by 40.6%.
International network length reached 54646 miles.

Network map from the center hub of  Fort Lauderdale

Network map from the other US cities

OTHER STATISTICS

  

Market share of International passengers has been decreasing as domestic expansion outpaced international operations  but is now stabilizing around 8-9%,