Fort Lauderdale-based Spirit to add Miami flights?
Spirit Airlines -- the self-described ultra-low-cost carrier that has its main base near Fort Lauderdale -- is now considering from flying out of Miami, the airport next door.
That's according to The Miami Herald, which says Spirit has been talking with Miami for "months" about adding Miami International (MIA) to its route map.
"They want to move a number, if not a bulk, of their operations to MIA," Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez is quoted as saying by the Herald in an interview last week.
Miami airport officials confirmed talks with Spirit to the Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, though they offered a more general statement that did not single out the possibility of an outright shift of flights.
"Miami-Dade Aviation Director Emilio Gonzalez and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez have been in ongoing discussions for many months with Spirit Airlines about them starting operations at MIA, but nothing has been finalized yet," MIA says in that statement to the Sun Sentinel.
Spirit officials would not divulge specific details to either newspaper on specific talks the airline has had with any particular airport.
Spirit operates its biggest base at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport (FLL), which is about 30 miles north of MIA. The carrier is the third-busiest at FLL, trailing only No.1 Southwest/AirTran and No. 2 JetBlue.
Spirit operates about 45 daily departures from Fort Lauderdale, where it has about 18% of the marketshare, according to the Herald.
FLL officials say they've not heard anything to suggest Spirit plans to scale down its operations there.
"Spirit is a good partner and has a good working relationship with Broward County," Broward County Aviation Department spokesman Gregory Meyer tells the Herald. "Our airport and their airline have grown together. We have no information indicating that Spirit plans to relocate their operations from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to any other airport in the region."
In South Florida, low-cost carriers like Spirit typically have favored the Fort Lauderdale airport, which has lower costs for airlines than Miami. Southwest, JetBlue and Virgin America are among the other low-cost carriers that fly to Fort Lauderdale but not to Miami.
Spirit has long been a major player at FLL, but Spirit's low-cost competition there also has been growing during the past two years. In particular, JetBlue has been expanding its presence at FLL.
Still, with a projected annual growth rate of 15%-20% during the next few years, at least one analyst suggests Spirit may find a spot in its route map for both cities, the Sun Sentinel suggests.
"MIA, though a higher-cost airport, is also a higher-revenue airport," Seth Kaplan, managing partner at Airline Weekly, says to the Sun Sentinel. "There's strong demand for service to Latin America and a lot of business travel. Spirit has probably done the math and figured out that can add more than enough revenue to make up for the additional cost at MIA…I think they would do well with that."
Spirit spokeswoman DeAnne Gabel appeared to play down the speculation to the Sun Sentinel, telling the newspaper that the airline routinely talks to many airports as it looks for the best new options to grow.
"Sometimes, we launch service there, and sometimes we don't," she added.
Stay tuned …