Airlines

Spirit Airlines - airline information

General information

Spirit Airlines is one of the USA's most well known low cost airlines.

Even though, their fleet is medium in size, but dwarf near the giant SouthWest, Spirit manages to play a key role in the eastern part of the USA, where if connects important cities.

Founded in 1992, Spirit is a young airline and has known success, but it hasn't skyrocketed like rival JetBlue from New York.

Initially the airline operated under another name, CharterOne (founded in 1980s), then it rebranded and became the one we know today. The first flight under the new name was between Detroit and Atlantic City.

Ryanair and Air Asia are copying the model of Spirit, but is seems like so far Ryanair has been the most successful in this way of making business. The idea is to reduce prices as much as possible.

Fact sheet

General company information...
Official name:	Spirit Airlines
Slogan(s):	-
IATA designator:	NK
ICAO designator:	NKS
Headquarters:	Miramar (Florida), USA
Alliance:	None
Destinations...
Hubs:	Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport - Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood (Florida) USA Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport - Detroit (Michigan), USA
Focus cities, regions, secondary hubs:	Atlantic City International Airport - Atlantic City, USA
Number of destinations:	37
Fleet & flights-related...
Fleet size:	36
Aircraft types used:	Airbus A319, Airbus A321
Accidents & incidents:	None
Passengers-related...
Number of passengers:	-
Classes:	-
Frequent flyer program:	Free Spirit
Other important issues: - Spirit Airlines is one of the very few airlines that offer services for pets, on some flights

Destinations

Spirit operates charter and scheduled flights within the USA and the Caribbean region and South America.

With its 36 planes, Spirit flies to 37 destinations, a quarter of which are in the Caribbean area and South America.

Peru, Honduras and Nicaragua were places towards which the airline has extended its tentacles in 2007. Further extensions into Venezuela, Colombia, Trinidad & Tobago are expected.

Fleet

Spirit has chosen Airbus for its fleet. All aircraft are Airbuses, types used are Airbus A319 and A32.

Activity & market position

Focusing on vacation destinations

The carrier tries to exploit the intense traffic between the USA and the primary vacation destinations of the US citizens.

Inside the USA it rivals with low cost carriers on certain destinations and southeastern US airlines.

Last modified/updated: October 5, 2007