Spirit now up to 10 nonstop routes out of Boston Logan
Boston will become the latest focus city for fast-growing Spirit Airlines, which announced plans for three more routes from the city.
The new routes – to Las Vegas, Detroit and Cleveland – will give Spirit a total of 10 nonstop destinations out of Boston.
"Spirit continues to add flights to important cities like Boston from Detroit and Cleveland, where our low fares have resonated with Midwestern travelers," Mark Kopczak, Spirit's VP of Network Planning, says in a statement.
Spirit's three newest Boston routes will begin April 16. The carrier's daily Boston-Las Vegas service will operate year-round. The Detroit and Cleveland routes will be seasonal, operating through November.
Spirit's other destinations from Boston are Atlantic City; Chicago O'Hare; Dallas/Fort Worth; Detroit; Fort Lauderdale; Fort Myers, Fla.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; and West Palm Beach.
Spirit operates its biggest hub in Fort Lauderdale, but has developed a number other cities into small focus cities from which it operates anywhere from five to 15 nonstop routes. The airline's other focus cities that have recently expanded include Cleveland, Kansas City, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston Bush Intercontinental, Chicago O'Hare, Denver and Phoenix.
The strategy has helped the self-describe "ultra low-cost carrier" emerge as one of the nation's most-profitable airlines.
Back to Boston, Spirit will face existing carriers on all three routes.
To Las Vegas, Spirit will go up against JetBlue for nonstop service from Boston. Virgin America also just launched nonstop flights on that route, but its seasonal service is scheduled to end April 28.
On the Detroit-Boston route, Delta and JetBlue also offer nonstop service.
The Cleveland-Boston route is one that's set for a spike in competition. United is currently the only airline offering nonstops between those cities, but JetBlue is set to add its own service on that route April 30 -- two weeks after Spirit's new flights are set to begin.
"That route used to be very under-served and suddenly it's become a hot item," Airfarewatchdog.com founder George Hobica says to The Plain Dealer of Cleveland.
Spirit says it thinks it will do well on the route, even with the other options.
"If we can provide the lowest fare and still be profitable, that will determine if we serve a city market," Spirit spokesman Paul Berry adds to the Plain Dealer. "What other airlines do has little impact on Spirit's decision-making."