Spirit Airlines pivots its network strategy in 2020

After growing rapidly in new markets during the past couple of years, Spirit Airlines is taking a pause in new city additions in 2020, instead opting to bolster frequencies on certain routes and connect exiting points in its system that are not currently linked together.

The result of the shift is that the number of seats deployed in Spirit's immature markets is falling, and fewer new routes coupled with some culling the airline has done in its network should help Spirit preserve solid operating margins.

Despite the pause in new city growth, Spirit is adding a couple of new international points in its network in 2020 to Barranquilla and Bucaramanga, Colombia, expanding the number of destinations on its Colombian route map to five.