Spirit Airlines joins the dots in 2014, with also some new growth in Kansas City; US ULCCs Part 3

Spirit Airlines' network evolution so far in 2014 reflects its declarations of connecting the dots between various points in its route network established during the past few years as it has made a push into larger metropolitan markets that are dominated by legacy carriers.

The airline has rapidly grown from Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) during the past couple of years, and added eight new destinations from the airport during CY2013. But in 2014 DFW seems to have featured less prominently as Spirit sets up shop in Kansas City and adds more service from legacy strongholds in Chicago, Minneapolis and Houston.

For the moment it seems Spirit has no aspirations to captialise on legacy airline pull-downs in Cleveland and Cincinnati, as other carriers including Frontier move to backfill some of the capacity cuts initiated in those markets.

Instead of picking fights with other ultra low-cost carriers (ULCCs), Spirit is working to stimulate traffic in other areas it deems as ripe for its lower base fares.