Spirit Airlines is pulling out of Denver, citing the “underperformance” of routes from the Mile High City and in so doing, handing victory to United Airlines and also to Southwest Airlines and Frontier Airlines, the three largest carriers at DEN.
Spirit Airlines Ends Denver Service As Of January 9, 2024
There is no doubt that Spirit Airlines disrupts markets…I just saw it again yesterday when looking at a trip to Chicago:
The problem, of course, is that Spirit Airlines is losing money during a period when other airlines are making money. That suggests Spirit’s business model, at least during this time, is not sustainable.
As it faces a fundamental problem with its business model and ongoing engine delivery issues from Pratt & Whitney for its new aircraft orders, Spirit Airlines will suspend all service to Denver as of January 9, 2024. Spirit told Live And Let’s Fly:
As we continue to learn more about how Pratt & Whitney’s GTF engine availability impacts our fleet and operations, we’re forced to make some tough choices. After considering those constraints and the underperformance of our routes through Denver International Airport (DEN), we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue service at the airport, effective Jan. 9, 2024.
We apologize to our Guests for any inconvenience and will offer refunds to those with reservations after this date. Thank you to Denver’s Department of Aviation for their partnership and support over the years.
Spirit Airlines began serving in Denver in May 2012 and its market share at DEN has dropped over the last few years from about 2% prior to the pandemic to 0.8% in 2023. In fact, Spirit has only a single gate at DEN in the C Concourse.
Passengers impacted by this decision will receive a full refund, though that may not help if forced to pay much higher prices on another carrier for alternate travel.
The decision to pull out of Denver is music to the ears of United Airlines, the largest carrier at Denver, as well as Southwest Airlines and Frontier Airlines, all of which have a far larger presence at DEN.
CONCLUSION
Carriers rarely can shrink their way to growth and this news is sad not only for Spirit Airlines, but for the consumers who took advantage of low fares via Denver. But as Spirit Airlines may quickly be realizing, when something is too good to be true, it rarely is sustainable. The days of cheap fares may be coming to and end and Spirit Airlines pulling out of Denver is but one further datapoint.
top image: Denver International Airport
Spirit is the problem. I won’t fly them, won’t fly Frontier and a bunch of other airlines either.
This is good news for American Airlines too since they fly DEN-MIA & DEN-DFW.
Spirit only has one gate currently at DEN because of the concourse construction going on. They actually have enough activity to qualify for two gates which was the plan as they would be back on the A-Concourse towards the end of next year. Now the airport will have to decide what to do with those two gates, keep them as common use or lease them to another airline. If United gets to lease them then that would be a huge win.
Spirit was competing more with Southwest and Frontier as opposed to the big Three.
Shrewd enough to fold shop as opposed to fighting a losing battle.
Plenty other airports which would appreciate their service.
Still, I’ve flown the once, and that was enough.
Spirit had a problem of offering extremely limited flights to destinations already well serviced by airlines with larger operations at DEN. 2 flights to LAS and 1 flight to FLL do not offer an operation that can attract travelers when everybody else offers more flights at competitive prices. I’ve flown them DEN-LAS a few times and was usually able to have an empty middle if not full empty exit row.