No-frills budget carrier Spirit Airlines is coming to Burbank, California.
Today, the carrier announced it will offer three daily flights between Burbank and Las Vegas starting in June 2019.
Burbank becomes our second airport destination in the Los Angeles Basin, and enhances our service options for Tinsel Town Guests traveling to America’s Playground.
John Kirby, Spirit’s Executive Vice President of Network Planning, emphasized that it plans to offer fares so attractive that most will view it as the cheaper and better alternative to driving:
We look for markets that are overpriced and underserved.
Kirby, who is not related to United’s President Scott Kirby but came to Spirit from Alaska Airlines last autumn, added:
We like to talk about ourselves as the best value in the sky coupled with good operational reliability.
Introductory fares will start at $59/one-way and if these flights do well Spirit hopes to offer many more destinations from Burbank. Spirit will offer connections across the country from Las Vegas, opening additional destinations to one-stop itineraries from BUR. Spirit offers 55 daily flights from Las Vegas to 28 cities.
CONCLUSION
Spirit will compete with Southwest and Jet Suite X on the same route. I anticipate a price-war, thoguh $59 one-way is already difficult to beat.
image: tomasdelcoro // Creative Commons 2.0
$59 without a cabin bag, no service and with great risk (basically guarantee) of being left behind in case of irrops. I imagine it would be tough for Spirit to find their spot in the market. Especially as they would compete with WN and Jetsuitex.
Southwest offers promotional $59 one-way fares fairly regularly on this route. I think they will need to go lower if they want to have a competitive edge.