Spirit Airlines Cuts Two Dozen Routes in Major Shakeup

Spirit Airlines is making yet another change to its operations, axing 24 flights from major airports across America. The airline confirmed the change in a statement to The Points Guy. This latest announcement comes after Spirit announced the cancellation of 32 routes last month.

Major hubs such as Charlotte Douglas International, Dallas-Fort Worth, Fort Lauderdale, and Los Angeles’ LAX will be most heavily impacted. Each of those locations will have at least three Spirit routes cut. Spirit is discontinuing service from Charlotte to Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Los Angeles. That means there will now be less competition in those markets, and major airlines will be likely able to raise their ticket fees. For example, American Airlines is now the only airline which offers a direct route from Charlotte to Los Angeles.

Spirit also cut its Boston-Newark route, a particularly interesting move considering the airline just restarted it back in May. Spirit had two daily flights making the trip, but the airline faced significant competition from Delta and United, which offered many more options in a given day, not to mention frequent Amtrak service.

Spirit has already updated its itineraries. The airline assured customers that anyone who purchased tickets for one of the canceled flights will be given a full refund, or rerouted on another Spirit flight.

In a bit of good news for travelers, Spirit is adding seven limited-time routes for the Mardi Gras season in February. The airline will begin flights from New Orleans to Columbus; Indianapolis, Memphis, and San Antonio beginning on Feb. 25.