Frontier Airlines EarlyReturns - New competition at DEN from Spirit Airlines

I am not sure if anyone has posted this yet.

DENVER (APOnline) – The no-frills carrier Spirit Airlines Inc. says it plans to start offering daily, nonstop flights from Denver to its four largest bases starting May 3.The new flights will connect Denver to Las Vegas; Fort Lauderdale; Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Chicago O'Hare International Airport. Spirit is marking its new service with roundtrip fares available for purchase Thursday and Friday for $28.79 each way between Denver and the four destinations.
Denver International Airport officials said Thursday that Spirit will use either its 145-seat Airbus A319 or its 178-seat Airbus A320 aircraft for the flights.
Spirit is based in Miramar, Fla.

http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/story/2012-02-17/Spirit-Airlines-to-launch-Denver-flights-in-May/53136618/1

It seems like Spirit has been mostly ignored by the majors when they enter a big market. While Spirit probably competes more directly with Frontier, I don't know if it is too much to be worried about at all. F9 has a pretty large FF base in DEN and spirit will probably get some traffic but mostly low yielding.

That being said I'd love F9 to announce DEN-ORD and ORD-FLL.

I often wonder about the future of Spirit.

I have heard its demise predicted several times in the past few years.

I find this to be a very interesting development. Could it be that Spirit is testing out DEN to see if the market works for their business model? If it does work out, I can see a merger in the future for Spirit and Frontier.

Spirit can come and lower fares, but I am not taking them. They have no space on their planes and they charge you for every little thing. I don't care how low they go, they have no space between the chairs.

I find this to be a very interesting development. Could it be that Spirit is testing out DEN to see if the market works for their business model? If it does work out, I can see a merger in the future for Spirit and Frontier.

Spirit is testing the DEN waters, just like all the other new markets they've started. I think it is too soon to speculate on anything regarding a merger between F9 and Spirit. Not that it won't happen, but just because Spirit added a few routes in DEN doesn't mean they intend to launch a giant hub by acquiring F9.

Spirit is testing the DEN waters, just like all the other new markets they've started. I think it is too soon to speculate on anything regarding a merger between F9 and Spirit. Not that it won't happen, but just because Spirit added a few routes in DEN doesn't mean they intend to launch a giant hub by acquiring F9.

You are probably right, but when Republic came out and said they want to make Frontier an ULCC at the same time they are looking for someone to buy the airline. Only Spirit comes to mind. I assume their gates will be in A Concourse right along with Frontier.

You are probably right, but when Republic came out and said they want to make Frontier an ULCC at the same time they are looking for someone to buy the airline. Only Spirit comes to mind. I assume their gates will be in A Concourse right along with Frontier.

They've stated a number of times that they don't expect to sell to another airline. Not that it is off the table, but the most likely event is that F9 is spun off to RJET shareholders and with investment from outside private equity like TPG.

They've stated a number of times that they don't expect to sell to another airline. Not that it is off the table, but the most likely event is that F9 is spun off to RJET shareholders and with investment from outside private equity like TPG.

I tend to agree with the TPG aspect. Given that Rick Schifter is on the BOD. Schifter and Hoeksema engineered the original sale of YX.