Spirit Exit Lifts Former Route Fares 20% After 218% Spike on 1.8 Million Lost Seats
Updated
Updated · Live and Let's Fly · May 17
Spirit Exit Lifts Former Route Fares 20% After 218% Spike on 1.8 Million Lost Seats
6 articles · Updated · Live and Let's Fly · May 17
$39 fares from Fort Lauderdale to Dallas jumped to $124 within 48 hours of Spirit’s May 2 shutdown, the sharpest single-week domestic fare move tracked in a decade.
1.8 million seats vanished from May schedules with two days’ notice, and data from Cirium, Kayak and Going.com show former Spirit routes still running about 15% to 25% higher two weeks later.
Frontier has softened the hit where it moved quickly—adding service on more than 100 former Spirit routes—while JetBlue launched $99 rescue fares and added 11 Fort Lauderdale destinations; routes without fast backfill remain the priciest.
Jet fuel costs, up 84% since January amid disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, are also pushing fares higher, but the biggest increases remain concentrated in Spirit strongholds such as Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Las Vegas.
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