Spirit Airlines joins other Low-Cost Carriers in offering new premium travel options to its customers, as it fights an overcapacity problem.
After the worst of the pandemic, business travel continued to suffer for months or years, while leisure travel slowly recovered. This had the effect of boosting revenue faster for Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs), than for airlines that generally depend on premium passengers.
This situation has now changed dramatically. Spirit, Frontier and especially Southwest all operate slightly differently, and their different financial conditions change the urgency with which they’re having to modify their operations.
But at this time, all three of these airlines have plans to introduce premium offerings for their passengers. Most recently, Southwest decided to introduce allocated seating, with many seats having more legroom.
But Southwest’s changes won’t come into effect until next year. Spirit will introduce premium seating in its cabins much sooner than that – on August 27th, less than a month from now. Premium tickets will go on sale on August 16th.
This speed is probably because Spirit will only need to make minimal changes to its cabins. The airline will guarantee a blocked middle seat. Premium Spirit customers will also have a carry-on bag, a checked bag, priority boarding, a snack and something to drink.
Multiple Premium Options For Spirit Passengers
In total, Spirit will introduce four ticket options with premium offerings, including seats with more legroom. This suggests that there WILL be some changes in the cabin, beyond the blocked middle seats.
LCCs like Frontier and now Spirit are introducing such premium options because overcapacity in many high-demand routes is driving down prices. This means that losing a few seats per aircraft (to add legroom) won’t necessarily be a bad thing for Spirit.
At the same time, rising numbers of eager passengers are willing to pay extra, for a more comfortable flight, pushing traffic away from LCCs. All this leads some to suggest that the days of LCCs are over… unless these airlines re-invent their low-cost operating model.
Again, there are different circumstances that led to airlines like Spirit to pivot to premium offerings. Spirit’s finances suffered from the need to ground many newer A320neo-family jets due to engine issues. Southwest found itself having a fleet of too-big aircraft for its route network, because of delays in the certification of the 737 MAX. And Frontier… acted quickly and seems to have avoided most issues.
There is some bitter irony in Spirit Airlines’ decision to offer premium seating options with fewer seats per aircraft. The DoJ blocked the merger between Spirit and JetBlue, arguing that ticket prices would go up, and seat numbers would go down. But even without the merger, Spirit is having to do both of these things anyway.
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