Spirit Airlines, headquartered in South Florida, is now operating at its biggest airport as well, with a first route from Miami to be followed by 30 more over the next three months, including both domestic routes and flights to the Caribbean and South America.
When the last of the routes is added in January, Spirit will have become the airport’s #2 operator, behind only American Airlines. It’s already by far the market leader at nearby Fort Lauderdale, where it handles over a third of the passenger traffic.
The arrival of Spirit is part of a continuing challenge for AA at Miami; prior to the pandemic, American carried nearly two-thirds of Miami passengers and many of its routes had no direct competition. Over the past year and a half, however, Frontier, Southwest and JetBlue have started operating from Miami, potentially forcing some price drops at the airport.
