For years, leisure-focused carriers like Frontier, Allegiant and — yes — Spirit were in growth mode. Rock-bottom base fares proved irresistible to price-conscious travelers who shrugged off the laundry list of add-on fees that came with them.
But passenger preferences changed after the pandemic. The no-frills approach that worked so long for budget carriers began to fall out of favor with flyers, tipping the scales back toward traditional full-service airlines like Delta, United and American.
How will it all shake out after Spirit? There are other carriers in “precarious positions,” one analyst tells TPG’s Sean Cudahy, adding “if they don’t fix things quickly, this stuff snowballs very quick[ly].”
Elsewhere, one of our buzziest stories of the week comes from New England, where some passengers will soon be able to go through security in the suburbs — more than 20 miles from the main terminal at Boston Logan International Airport (BOS).
It’s a first-of-its-kind test for the TSA, and — if it goes well after it opens June 1 — it could be expanded to other airports.
And I’ll close this week with the latest airline turf war in the U.S., which comes in — of all places — California’s wine country.
That’s where Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines are duking it out over the airport in Santa Rosa, which serves as a gateway to both the Napa and Sonoma wine regions. Southwest even copied Alaska’s popular “wine flies free” policy. The gloves are off …
That’s it for this week. Have a great Memorial Day weekend and I’ll see you again in June.
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