Spirit continues rapid expansion from American’s stronghold of Dallas/Forth Worth

Spirit Airlines is planning further growth at Dallas/Fort Worth after rapidly building up a presence at the airport during the last couple of years. By Apr-2013 Spirit will serve nearly 20 destinations from DFW after only re-launching flights from the airport in 2011.

In late 2012 Spirit is adding two new stations to its network once it launches new service from Dallas to Baltimore and Houston, where it will square off with familiar legacy competitors and Southwest Airlines. Spirt also has unveiled plans to launch service from Dallas to Los Angeles and Oakland in 2Q2013 but will be dropping from Sep-2012 service on the Dallas-Boston route, one of several Dallas routes it launched earlier this year.

Spirit is also dropping in Sep-2012 flights from Chicago to Los Angeles, indicating its push over the last year at fortress legacy carrier hubs such as Dallas and Chicago has not enjoyed total success. At Dallas, Spirit's push from American's fortress is a highly calculated move into a legacy stronghold where the ultra low-cost carrier concludes it can peacefully co-exist with a legacy rival that happens to offer higher fares while struggling to lower its costs through a Chapter 11 restructuring. American also has a hub at Chicago O'Hare, where United has an even bigger hub.