Tag Archives for spirit airlines.
Spirit Airlines announced that their board has unanimously rejected JetBlue’s offer to pay more for the airline than Frontier, with whom the ultra low cost carrier had entered into a sale agreement.
JetBlue’s offer involved paying more but undermining Spirit’s low cost advantage and walking away from their more profitable business model. Instead JetBlue wanted Spirit for its planes, pilots, gates and slots.
With JetBlue looking to acquire Spirit Airlines, trumping Frontier’s offer, many observers have pointed out how different their business model, product, and cultures are – wondering if his acquisition could make any sense. Others disagree, suggesting that JetBlue buying Spirit ‘for parts’ – planes, gates, pilots, – will allow for more rapid expansion.
But are the products really that different? JetBlue has Mint business class, but in the premium category Spirit has more than just the Big Front Seat.
The Justice Department’s case against American-JetBlue was weak. A Spirit acquisition could make it stronger. But it’s still not a slam dunk. The Justice Department might say to JetBlue ‘drop the American Airlines alliance as a condition of our approval of the Spirit acquisition.’
Two months ago Frontier announced a deal to acquire Spirit Airlines creating a powerhouse ultra low cost airline.
Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines have announced that they are merging. Combined they’ll offer 1000 daily flights and serve 145 destinations in the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America and the transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2022.
This is effectively Frontier taking over Spirit for three reasons.
Spirit is launching service to Delta hub Salt Lake City starting May 26, 2022 with flights to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Orlando.
Three days ago video was posted to TikTok of a woman – dubbed Karen – out on the tarmac after arriving late to the gate for her Spirit Airlines flight. We’ve all been there, running to make a connection or arriving to the airport late, and showing up at the gate with the boarding door just having closed. There’s no defeat quite like it.
This woman wasn’t going to take matters lying down. If the plane is leaving without you, just run after it.
Los Angeles is surprisingly lightly served from Memphis, with Delta offering non-daily service and Allegiant flying the route. There’s no United or American flights. Memphis – Las Vegas has limited service, from Allegiant and Frontier. And Memphis – Orlando has very limited service from Southwest and Frontier. All are routes where Spirit has a shot. And, for their strategy, if the fares are low enough people will come from all over.
Mid-year Spirit Airlines announced a big expansion in Miami, an American Airlines hub, becoming the second largest airline there. Traditionally they had stuck with lower-cost Fort Lauderdale.
Now they’re making a run at American’s hub in Philadelphia. They’ve just announced 7 new routes, increased service to another and flights to 20 total destinations. Spirit and Frontier together are the next two largest airlines in Philadelphia after American.
This flight attendant would have fit in well in the old days when Spirit Airlines marketing was led by a 13 year old buy current Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle… and they’d run Anthony Weiner sales, MILF sales (“Many Islands, Low Fares”) and declared during the Gulf oil spill that you should check out the (suntan) oil on their beaches.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
