Spirit Airlines announced today that they will start flying from Pittsburgh International Airport (not yet called Mister Rodgers International Airport) this summer. From June the Ultra Low-Cost Carrier brings their “bare” fares to PIT.
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The seven new nonstop destinations are as follows:
- Los Angeles (LAX)
- Dallas (DFW)
- Myrtle Beach, SC (MYR) – seasonal
- Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
- Orlando (MCO)
- Las Vegas (LAS)
- Houston (IAH)
Spirit previously served the region-ish with flights departing from Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, PA (LBE) with flights to:
- Myrtle Beach (MYR)
- Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
- Orlando (MCO)
- Fort Myers (RSW)
- Tampa (TPA)
Given the overlap of Orlando, Myrtle Beach and Fort Lauderdale it has to be a near certainty that Spirit will cease operations at nearby Latrobe, about 45 minutes drive from Pittsburgh. It’s a loss for that small community, but a big win for those in Pittsburgh as it will add competition to several destinations and drive down fares. I fear it will also expand United and American’s expansion of their “basic economy” fares which have launched online today for both carriers.
As a Pittsburgher, I find it interesting that Spirit did not target frequent holiday destinations. American has a once weekly flight to Cancun but for the most part charter service still dominates the Caribbean holiday market. The clear miss is Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. It’s closer than LA by flight time, and if you have ever wanted a failsafe measure by which to bore yourself to tears, just ask anyone from Pittsburgh if they have ever been there. It’s such a right of passage you would think they hand out free tickets when the Steelers win a super bowl (they have six, you know).
The new CEO for PIT, Christina Cassotis has done a great job in her short two-year history with the airport. She has added eight new carriers (Spirit is the 16th airline currently operating service) and PIT is one of only nine that can say the host all three ULCCs. Service in the last two years has grown from 37 destinations to 68 with nonstop service. Earlier this year, PIT announced WOW Air would add flights to Reykjavik, Iceland, and Condor with nonstop service to Frankfurt starting this summer. Those additions complement existing seasonal trans-Atlantic direct service from Delta’s destination dartboard flight to Paris CDG. She also had the website updated and it is awesome.
Pittsburgh International Airport is Spirit’s 61st. Tickets go on sale soon with introductory fares and flights starting in June.
silly question, but what do you mean by referencing “delta’s destination dartboard”?
Sean, that’s not a silly question. The Delta Dartboard is the invention of some other bloggers most commonly used on the Dots, Lines and Destinations podcast (moredotsmorelines.com) regarding the random nature by which Delta chooses odd city pairs. For example, without any other hub support Delta flies nonstop 5 times per week on a 757 from Pittsburgh to Paris & Hartford to Cancun. They also fly Raleigh to London and Boston to Amsterdam. Another example is a random flight they stopped before they even started, Chicago to London (http://blog.wandr.me/2014/03/deltas-shortest-lived-route-ever/). Within that post Seth mentions the numerous destinations in Africa including a scissor hub that Delta “tried” and have now quit all but a couple. It seems to those bloggers and others that Delta has a dartboard of the world and is just throwing planes on random destinations without rhyme or reason.
Thanks for your question and for reading Travel Codex.
The seemingly random city pairs that Delta flies (was a lot more apparent a few years back). Routes like Pittsburgh-Paris, or the defunct Chicago-London or Miami-London (hubs for UA and AA, but not for DL).
I’m a Pittsburgher, too. I’m not excited about Spirit and can’t see myself flying it at all.
I know the Robotics/Tech/CMU people are upset with so few non-stops to SFO. This doesn’t solve their problem and I wonder what it will take to get more PIT-SFO direct flights. They’ve threatened to take their business to charters and skip commercial flights all together.
Also… the push was to change the name of the Allegheny County Airport to Fred Rogers Airport, not PIT…. though PIT as FRA would have been way cooler. Neither is going to happen. 🙁
My mistake on which airport was area airport was petitioned for the name change, I will edit the post. I would doubt the FRA airport code though as it serves as an “metropolitan airport code” for all Frankfurt airports. Similarly WAS is used to encompass all Washington DC airports (DCA, IAD, BWI), NYC for all New York airports (LGA, JFK, EWR) etc.
Thanks for reading and for the comments – maybe I will see you at the airport some time. Safe travels.
My apologies on this comment not posting when I intended it to, weeks ago. Good catch on my mistake too, I will correct the post. I appreciate you bringing it to my attention because I want posts to be as accurate as possible. In regards to FRA, that is the metropolitan area airport code for Frankfurt which includes surrounding airports, much like typing NYC into Google flights (or any OTA) will spit out results from La Guardia, JFK, and Newark – so I doubt that any new airport name would get that code.
But when are we getting Alaska Airlines????
I wanted to mention that because I feel like flights to Seattle or Portland are coming but sadly still aren’t here yet.
I think the real tragedy is the flags outside the terminal for each country that serves PIT – they erroneously kept the Union Jack years after British Airways left but still don’t have one up for Mexico. What gives?
Good question. I have a feeling that is the next win for PIT, especially given the expansion Alaska is doing right now. Portland and Seattle are easy picks, SFO not as much.