Spirit Airlines makes some progress in operations, but still lags its peers in key metrics

Operational improvement is a top priority for Spirit Airlines' new CEO, who has held the position for just six months. Data from the US government show that Spirit is making progress in some areas of operations, but still lags behind other US airlines. As the busy summer season kicks into full force, Spirit's commitment to improving operations could be put to the test.

As Spirit's rivals hone their product segmentation strategies to match Spirit's low fares, operational improvement takes on a whole new level of importance for the ultra-low cost airline and its particular business model. Spirit's ULCC rival Frontier is outperforming Spirit in some operational metrics.

Spirit is in undergoing other changes, including a change in its fleet mix to smaller-gauge Airbus narrowbodies. The company has intimated that it would examine smaller markets in the future to decrease competition with larger airlines. Many of the new routes that Spirit has introduced in 2016 feature Southwest and Delta as competitors and it appears that Spirit now has the largest network overlap with Southwest, rather than with American Airlines.