Spirit Airlines

## What is Spirit Airlines?

**Spirit Airlines, Inc.** is an American ultra-low-cost carrier headquartered in Miramar, Florida. It is the eighth largest commercial airline in North America. Spirit operates scheduled flights throughout the United States and in the Caribbean, Mexico, Latin America, and South America. The airline operates bases at Atlantic City, Chicago–O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Las Vegas.

## Early Days

The company initially started as Clippert Trucking Company in 1964. The company changed its name to Ground Air Transfer, Inc., in 1974. The airline service was founded in 1983 in Macomb County, Michigan, by Ned Homfeld as Charter One, a Detroit-based charter tour operator providing travel packages to entertainment destinations such as Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and the Bahamas. In 1990, Charter One began scheduled service from Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, to Atlantic City. On May 29, 1992, Charter One brought jet aircraft into the fleet and changed its name to Spirit Airlines. Scheduled flights between Detroit and Atlantic City began on June 1, 1992. Scheduled flights between Boston and Providence began on June 15, 1992.

On April 2, 1993, Spirit Airlines began scheduled service to Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, and St. Petersburg, Florida. Flights between Atlantic City and Fort Myers, Florida, began on September 25, 1993. Service at Philadelphia began in 1994. During the next five years, Spirit expanded further, increasing service from Detroit and adding service in new markets such as Myrtle Beach, Los Angeles, and New York City.

In the summer of 1994, Spirit Airlines overbooked flights, and 1,400 customers' tickets were canceled. The overbooking occurred because Spirit Airlines had given incorrect instructions to travel agents, causing those tickets not to be valid, even though the customers had paid for the flights. In response to criticism, Spirit Airlines said it would make sure all paid customers would always be able to fly to their destination, even if Spirit Airlines had to book them on a competitor's airline.

Spirit initially had their headquarters in Eastpointe, Michigan (formerly East Detroit) in Metro Detroit.It relocated its headquarters in November 1999, moving to Miramar, Florida in the Miami Metropolitan Area.Prior to the decision to move the headquarters to Miramar, Spirit considered Atlantic City, New Jersey and Detroit, Michigan.

In 2000, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) fined Spirit Airlines $67,000 for allegedly violating federal regulations on cabin and seat markings and placards.Discrepancies were found in the marking and placarding of emergency equipment, passenger seats, storage areas and doors on eight of Spirit's DC9 and MD80 aircraft.

In November 2001, Spirit inaugurated service to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and implemented a fully integrated Spanish-language customer service plan including a website and dedicated reservation line.

In the fall of 2003, Spirit resumed flights to Washington, D.C.'s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which were suspended after the September 11 attacks. Spirit also began service to Grand Cayman, San Francisco, and Boston in 2006, and in 2007 filed DOT applications to offer service to Costa Rica, Haiti, the Netherlands Antilles and Venezuela

## Life of a Low-cost airline

On March 6, 2007, Spirit began a transition to an ultra low-cost carrier, following a fare model that decoupled amenities that are often included in the base ticket price of traditional carriers. Passengers who wanted to customize their itinerary or flight experience paid an add-on fee for each additional feature, which enabled the carrier to earn ancillary revenue in excess of 40% of total revenue.[18] These included having an agent print a boarding pass at check-in versus doing it online or at a kiosk,[19] for any large carry-on or checked bags, progressive fees for overweight bags, selected seat assignments, travel insurance, and more.[20] In 2011, Spirit Airlines became the first U.S. airline to charge passengers for carry-on bags. They were later followed by allegiant-air and Frontier Airlines

## Merging with Frontier Airlines!?

In January 2016, Baldanza stepped down as CEO in order to relocate from Florida, and was replaced by former Air Tran CEO Robert L. Fornaro. This prompted rumors of a merger with Frontier Airlines if the carriers were to merge, it would create the single largest ultra-low-cost carrier in the Americas. Fornaro led an effort to change the company and improve working conditions as well as the guest experience, implementing multiple changes such as teaming up with the Disney Institute to create new service standards and changing policies internally to create a more welcoming environment.