With the disappearance of Spirit Airlines another competitive front has been opened as a number of airlines push into what was one of Spirit’s major hubs, Florida’s Fort Lauderdale.
Both Allegiant and JetBlue, which both already operate there, are adding hosts of new routes to and from the leisure-focused airport in an apparent attempt to take the dominant role there once held by Spirit.
Allegiant has added four new routes from FLL, including Boston, which is one of JetBlue’s two major hubs. Allegiant will also be adding Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Omaha to its Fort Lauderdale offerings.
JetBlue, meantime, is so committed to building up its Fort Lauderdale routes—its executives have called it a ‘third tentpole’ along with New York and Boston—that it is dropping service to Manchester, New Hampshire and cutting back on a number of Caribbean routes to be able to move planes and crews to Fort Lauderdale routes.
With all that new competition, Fort Lauderdale may escape some of the rising fares that have already been noted where there is no longer competition from Spirit.
