Spirit adds Akron-Canton after Southwest cutbacks
Spirit Airlines is adding a new destination in the Midwest, announcing plans to begin flying to the Akron-Canton Airport in northeast Ohio. Spirit officials tell local media its new flights will help fill a vacuum left after Southwest trimmed capacity on routes between Akron-Canton and Florida.
Spirit's flights to four Florida cities will begin in November. And in April, Spirit will add seasonal service to the South Carolina golf and beach resort of Myrtle Beach. Two of Spirit’s Florida routes from Akron-Canton – to Tampa and Fort Myers – also will be seasonal. The carrier's flights to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale are intended to operate year-round.
“Akron-Canton is the perfect place to expand our growing network,” Mark Kopczak, Spirit’s VP of Network Planning, says in a statement. “This new service compliments Spirit’s existing service to Cleveland, and will help us provide even more ultra-low fare options from Northeast Ohio’s two top airports.”
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Indeed, the news is a significant victory for Akron-Canton Airport (airport code CAK), which has worked to cement itself as the No. 2 airport in the populous region of northeast Ohio. Though CAK serves its namesake cites of Akron and Canton, it also draw passengers from metro Cleveland. Downtown Cleveland is only about 50 miles to the north.
Spirit already flies all five of the routes it’s adding at CAK from Cleveland, where it offers a total of 10 nonstop routes. Despite that, Kopczak tells The Plain-Dealer of Cleveland the new CAK flights are intended to compliment – and not compete – with what it already offers from Cleveland.
"In many ways, these are very separate markets," Kopczak tells the newspaper. "We can serve both markets, and serve them both well."
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As you would expect, CAK airport officials welcomed the new service.
“This is a great day for travelers who love ultra-low fares and awesome vacation destinations,” Akron-Canton CEO, Rick McQueen adds in Spirit’s statement. “We are thrilled about the five destinations Spirit has selected and can’t wait to see those cool yellow airplanes land here at CAK.“
CAK is served by the nations “Big Three” of American, Delta and United, each of which offers service to at least two of their respective hubs. Low-cost giant Southwest and Allegiant – an “ultra low-cost rival” of Spirit – also fly from CAK. Several of Spirit's routes will overlap Allegiant's service.
Southwest began flying to CAK when it inherited the routes of AirTran, which it announced plans to acquire in 2010. But Southwest has caused concern at CAK during the past year as it trimmed many of the routes AirTran flew from CAK, including several routes to Florida. Southwest now flies just to just two destinations from CAK: year-round service to Atlanta and Saturday-only service to Orlando.
But Southwest’s decision to scale back is something that may have helped lure Spirit to CAK.
"There was good demand for that service," Kopczak says to the Canton Repository newspaper.
“Service was reduced a little bit and fares have been getting higher, so we saw an opportunity to come in and help bring those fares down and bring people back into flying with this fabulous airport,” Kopczak adds to the Akron Beacon-Journal.
Kristie Van Auken, CAK’s marketing and communication chief, says the airport had been working to attract Spirit for nearly a decade.
“The reductions on Southwest, as painful as they were, opened up a window for us,” Van Auken says to the Beacon-Journal.
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The routes also follow through on a pledge made by new Spirit CEO Bob Fornaro that Spirit might shift its focus to smaller secondary airports. That comes after Spirit's recent expansion at major hubs dominated by airlines like American and Delta provoked intense fare wars.
The strategy of growing at rivals’ hub airports has "produced very good results and still produces very good results,” Fornaro was quoted as saying byTheStreet.com in February. “(But) going forward we will be much more open to a broader view of routes. We will be just as focused on midsize markets.”
As for CAK, scroll down for details on Spirit’s new service:
Fort Lauderdale: 1 daily round-trip flight, year-round (begins Nov. 10)
Orlando: 1 daily round-trip flight, year-round (begins Nov. 10)
Tampa: 3 flights a week, seasonal (begins Nov. 10)
Fort Myers: 4 flights a week, seasonal (begins Nov. 11)
Myrtle Beach: 1 daily round-trip flight, seasonal (begins April 27)