Spirit adds 9 new routes in latest network adjustment

Spirit Airlines continues to rearrange its network with the addition of nine new routes.

The Miramar, Florida-based carrier quietly loaded a slew of new flights over the weekend, as first seen in Cirium schedules and later confirmed by a carrier spokesperson. (The airline did not issue a press release along with these new routes.)

You'll find the full list of Spirit's new routes below (and on the map above), but highlights include expansions in Boston; Columbus, Ohio; Portland, Oregon; and Salt Lake City.

From Boston, Spirit will add flights to Columbus, Detroit and Pittsburgh. Of these, the Boston-to-Detroit route is the only one that's technically a resumption.

Meanwhile, the carrier will connect Portland — a key hub for Alaska Airlines — with Chicago, San Diego and Burbank, California — all routes already flown by Alaska (and some others like American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines).

The airline will also add service from Fort Lauderdale and San Diego to Salt Lake City, both of which go up against Delta Air Lines (and a few others).

All but one of these new routes will operate on a daily basis. Most begin in June, but the Chicago-to-Portland flight will commence on May 8.

For Spirit, these new routes represent the latest change that the carrier has made to boost profitability, as many of its historically popular markets continue to suffer from over-capacity. Airports like Orlando and Las Vegas have seen some unprecedented growth from a slew of domestic carriers, with some, including Spirit, now saying that it will refocus its network to other airports.

Matt Klein, Spirit's chief commercial officer, alluded to some of these aforementioned changes on the company's most recent earnings call.

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"We are also continuing to make other adjustments to the network to better align our capacity towards markets where the supply/demand trends are more in balance. We started to get more aggressive in this process in Q4, and we will continue to refine the network throughout the balance of the first half of the year," Klein said.

Late last month, Spirit unveiled seven new flights, including two to Puerto Rico and four from Baltimore. The carrier followed up just days later by slashing 13 flights, most of which touched markets that have been oversaturated with capacity, including Las Vegas, Orlando and Miami.

As for what's next, Spirit said this month that it will move to add more flight connections as a way to boost revenues. Klein also said at this month's Routes Americas conference that it would continue to trim Florida flying.

"Part of it is operationally driven, and part of it is also commercially driven where we think there may be better opportunities to match up supply and demand," Klein said.

Spirit's 9 new routes

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