Spirit Airlines comes to new city with three flights

The airline just announced its expansion into a new airport.

Mar 5, 2025 - 19:42

Spirit Airlines comes to new city with three flights

The last six months have been particularly tumultuous for Spirit (SAVE) .

The low-cost airline based in Florida announced that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2024 and prompted months of speculation about what would come of it. Rumors around several potential mergers were finally put to rest when, on Feb. 20, the airline announced that it would go private and give control to a coalition of its biggest bondholders.

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Spirit is promising travelers new 'convenient nonstop options'

This plan is what will, according to CEO Ted Christie, allow Spirit to continue operations as before; with over $1 billion in debt payments due in 2025 and 2026, the airline was quickly running out of options.

But with the turnaround plan now allowing for the conversion of $795 million funded debt into equity, Spirit is able to focus on finding new profitable markets — on March 5, the airline announced that it will now fly out of Columbia Metropolitan Airport (CAE) in the state's capital in northwestern South Carolina.

The three new routes to Columbia from Fort Lauderdale (FLL), Newark (EWR), and Orlando (MCO) will launch on June 6 for the first two and June 5 for the latter.

"Travelers from South Carolina's capital city will soon enjoy convenient nonstop options and Spirit's recently transformed experience on their way to various destinations with beaches, theme parks and big city attractions," Spirit Vice President of Network Planning John Kirby said in a statement.

More on travel:

The Fort Lauderdale and Newark routes will run three times a week while the Orlando one will run four; the exact days will be announced closer to the start date.

You can score a seat on the new Spirit flight for $50 (this is what you need to do)

But to promote the new flights to those who are willing to lock in their travel early, Spirit is offering a promotional fare of $50 in each direction. To score it, one needs to book travel online on the Spirit website before the end of March 20 for travel between June 5 and Aug. 12, 2025.

Columbia Metropolitan Airport has been pushing for Spirit to come to their city given its distance from the state's main Charleston Airport (CHS) and demand for service to popular vacation destinations like Orlando and Fort Lauderdale in particular.

"Securing three nonstop routes on Spirit Airlines is a significant accomplishment for the airport and likewise a big win for this entire community and region," Gregg Hornsby, the airport's interim president and CFO, said in a statement.

In the same announcement, Spirit said that it will also launch three new flights out of Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (CHA) in southeastern Tennessee this coming June. The routes will also fly to the same three core cities of Newark, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando and are included in the $50 fare promotion for early bookings.

Airport president April Cameron also called these new routes "highly sought after destinations to our community. Spirit had first come to the state's Nashville in 2019 and Memphis in 2022 although some of these were eventually cut due to low demand.