Originally Posted by
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Spirit, Other Low-Cost Carriers Adding Caribbean, Central American Flights
Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Publication date: 2004-08-05
Arrival time: 2004-08-04
Aug. 5--Freshly infused with cash, Spirit Airlines is looking to fly south to Latin America and the Caribbean. The Miramar-based airline, which started flying to Cancun, Mexico, last year, has already received permission from the U.S. government to expand to 10 other Caribbean and Central American destinations.
"There should be some announcements, hopefully in the next few months, that we're starting to move into these areas," said the airline's chief executive, Jacob Schorr, who said the carrier was now negotiating with local airports and governments on when flights could begin.
Schorr says the move makes perfect sense because the privately held airline can capitalize on a growing South Florida population from the region who will visit friends and family. Spirit can also capture leisure travelers from more than a dozen other U.S. cities the airline serves, he said.
Focusing on the region is "an idea that we'll be spending a lot of time and resources on in the next year," said Schorr.
He said the airline will expand gradually into the Caribbean and Latin American market. Systemwide, the airline plans to add a couple of international and domestic destinations each year. The low-cost carrier will tap a $125 million infusion received in February to help fuel the expansion and buy new planes.
But Spirit isn't alone among low-cost carriers in seeing the region as attractive.
On Wednesday, AirTran Airways said it would add another nonstop flight to the Bahamas from Atlanta this fall; the airline also flies to that destination from Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
Earlier this week, JetBlue Airways said it had requested federal permission to provide international nonstop service to the Bahamas from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Delta Air Lines Inc.'s low-fare unit, Song, also said it would launch Bahamas service from JFK.
The trend is a natural next step for these carriers, said Stuart Klaskin, a partner with KKC Aviation Consulting in Coral Gables, who added the airlines have defied the previous conventional wisdom in the United States that the low-cost model wouldn't work for international flights.
Traditionally, travelers to Latin America and the Caribbean have used Miami International Airport. But international traffic at Fort Lauderdale- Hollywood International Airport, where the low-cost carriers fly from, is already up almost 26 percent for the first half of this year when compared with 2003, airport officials said.
Leisure-market travelers aren't the only people looking for a cheap fare.
People from Caribbean countries constitute the fastest-growing ethnic group in Broward, Palm and Miami-Dade counties, according to the 2000 census. The census estimated the group at 800,000, although community leaders say the numbers are much higher.
Travel to the Caribbean from other parts of the country has also been strengthened by Americans wanting to vacation closer to home since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Travel and tourism in the region, also boosted by Europeans capitalizing on the strong euro, is expected to grow by about 4 percent a year over the next decade, according to a study done this summer by the private World Travel and Tourism Council.
For Spirit's Schorr, that makes the expansion all the more natural for South Florida.
"We have a local community to support us as well as passengers coming through from the North," he said. "We should be able to offer good service and good prices."
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