Spirit Airlines Finds Even Cheap Fares Can’t Help Fill Airplanes
Skift Take
Spirit Airlines executives suspect their airline is well-positioned to win in a recovery. They're probably right, since low-cost options often thrive during a recession. But Spirit has to withstand the crisis first.
When travelers buy fewer plane tickets, Spirit Airlines typically lowers its prices, offering unbeatable deals — like $19 per one-way ticket — to get customers off the couch and onto its airplanes. It's the key piece of the low-cost-carrier playbook, and it almost always works.
The strategy even proved useful for Spirit in early March, as many travelers, fearful of Covid-19, rushed to cancel flights on other carriers. For the right price, Spirit briefly proved consumers would jump at bargain fares.
Then it stopped — even for Spirit. By the end of March, Spirit was having as much trouble filing its airplanes as any other carrier.
"As events throughout the nation were canceled, theme parks closed, and travel bans implemented, load factors dropped precipitously," CEO Ted Christie said Thursday on the airline's first quarter earnings call.
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