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You’ll be seeing a lot more of Spirit Airlines at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) soon.
The low-cost airline has been awarded the right to significantly expand its operations out of the New Jersey airport.
“[Spirit Airlines will] continue to promote competition and offer affordable, high-value travel options for guests traveling in and out of the New York Metropolitan area,” said a spokesperson for Spirit Airlines.
Here’s the scoop on Spirit’s new slots.
The Department of Transport (DOT) has switched 16 peak runway slots at Newark from Southwest to Spirit.
The news will come as a blow to United — the carrier with the most presence at Newark — having previously requested that the slots be canceled altogether in a move to reduce congestion and delays.
According to the DOT, the decision “secures low-cost service options for Newark customers and improves competition in the Newark (EWR) market.”
Hot Tip: You’d be right in thinking that Spirit’s fares couldn’t get much lower (most of the time). Well, you could spend even less by using the airline’s Free Spirit points, which are easier to come by than you might think.
Ultimately, increasing competition will more than likely result in lower fares for passengers.
Spirit won the right to all of the slots despite JetBlue and Alaska Airlines having bid for 16 and 4, respectively.
As it stands, Spirit flies to 16 destinations out of Newark’s Terminal B from San Juan (SJU) in the Caribbean across to Oakland (OAK) on the West Coast as well as down to New Orleans (MSY) in the South.
With its new prime-time slots, Spirit could decide to add new routes to compete with some of United’s important commuter routes. Another option would be to increase capacity on some of the high-demand routes that it already operates.
Given the importance of these slots, it could also be the case that Spirit will opt for a mixture of both.
In either case, we’ll be sure to keep you updated with any further information.
Spirit Airlines is doubling down on Newark.
Its 16 ideally-timed new slots will mean the airline is able to increase its presence at the key New York metropolitan area airport.
Whether it’s through increasing capacity on routes it already serves or adding new destinations, we’re excited to see how the situation unfolds and will keep you up to date as soon as we know more.
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