Spirit Airlines, the ultra-low-cost-carrier that many passengers love to hate, wants to change that a bit by improving reliability, and being nicer to passengers, making interactions friendlier…but not backing away from its fee-for-everything business model.
With an on-time record of about 69%, compared with an industry average of 80%, new CEO Bob Fornaro has focused on that as his first area of improvement. He told Bloomberg News that he believes a better on-time record will help change customer perceptions.
Fornaro also said that he wants staff to be friendlier, for instance politely explaining that charging for a cup of soda helps keep fares low.
Spirit may also shift its route strategy; it’s been expanding into markets heavily served by the Big Three, leading to aggressive pricing wars. To avoid more of that, it may shift expansion to smaller cities that have little or no service but could feed passengers into its larger hubs.
