PIT’s Ultra Low-Cost Carriers Expand Into Non-Leisure Markets

Ultra-low-cost carriers (ULCCs) are offering a record number of seats at Pittsburgh International Airport this summer, in part because of their new focus on locations beyond traditional vacation destinations.

The carriers are adding routes, introducing more products to enhance the customer experience and offering competitive pricing to save travelers more money.

Traditionally, ULCCs have been strongest in flying leisure travelers to popular tourist markets, such as Florida, the Caribbean and Las Vegas. Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, those leisure markets saw an oversupply of seating capacity as many airlines scrambled to capitalize on the strong recovery in leisure travel.

“What happened last year in Florida was the equivalent of Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart, and Target all opening up on the same block,” Frontier CEO Barry Biffle told Reuters earlier this year.

“There’s just too much capacity in Florida and Las Vegas… they can’t add flights and make more money,” added Brett Snyder, founder of the industry site Cranky Flier.

“That means looking for places where fares are higher but there’s still enough passenger demand fill their aircraft because they have big airplanes with a lot of seats.”

Network redesign

Leading the way at PIT are the nation’s two largest ULCCs. Spirit Airlines is offering more than 144,000 seats on arriving and departing planes in July, the most since it began service at PIT in 2017. Frontier Airlines is offering nearly 49,000 seats this month, the most since it re-entered the Pittsburgh market in 2016.

Along with Allegiant Air, which serves 14 destinations nonstop, and Sun Country Airlines, which resumed seasonal service to Minneapolis in May, ULCCs are offering more than 250,000 total seats, the most ever by the segment’s carriers at PIT.

RELATED: Airlines to Break Records at PIT this Summer

In April, Frontier announced it was moving excess capacity out of leisure markets with a new focus on high-fare, underserved routes. “And so that’s where you look for these sweet spots, which are still large enough, but have higher fares,” Snyder said. “You could look at any mid-continent hub or former hub as a place that might create an opportunity for them.”

In May, Frontier began nonstop flights from PIT to Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia and Raleigh-Durham, tripling its Pittsburgh network, which also includes nonstop service to Denver and seasonal flights to Orlando.

Spirit, meanwhile, has also added several new routes at PIT this year, launching daily service to Boston, Houston-Intercontinental and New York-LaGuardia. Spirit’s Pittsburgh network now boasts 12 destinations, and the airline has grown to become PIT’s fifth largest overall by total passengers.

Targeting new passengers

ULCCs, like Frontier and Spirit, are also targeting new groups of travelers looking for budget-friendly choices in larger markets.

“It’s not that traditional group that’s going to see Mickey Mouse or going to gamble away their life savings,” Snyder said. “It’s a shift from a traditional pure leisure type of market to one that has a lot more visiting-friends-and-relatives; bigger cities with more people that go back and forth. Pittsburgh is on that list of places that has received more service.”

Frontier’s Pittsburgh-Philadelphia route operates up to twice a day alongside American Airlines’ existing daily flights, giving travelers a low-cost option for travel between Pennsylvania’s two largest cities. Frontier also provides options to Atlanta (served by Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines), Dallas-Fort Worth (served by American and Southwest via Love Field) and Raleigh-Durham (served by American and Breeze Airways.)

Spirit operates nonstop to Boston alongside Delta and JetBlue; Houston with Southwest (via Houston-Hobby) and United Airlines; and New York-LaGuardia alongside American and Delta.

Additionally, New York-LaGuardia is Spirit’s second daily flight between Pittsburgh and New York City; the carrier also operates daily service to Newark, which began in 2022.

Along with a new focus on consumers, Frontier and Spirit have made drastic changes to their pricing structures, eliminating change and cancellation fees and introducing new bundled fare classes.

“It is clear that we need to introduce some changes to reflect the new dynamics of the industry and to make Spirit a more compelling option for the traveling public,” Spirit CEO Ted Christie said in the airline’s first quarter earnings call in March.

RELATED: Frontier, Spirit Scrap Change, Cancellation Fees

Among Frontier’s new fares include its Business bundle, which adds two free checked bags under 50 pounds. Business also adds Frontier’s extra legroom seating near the front of the aircraft and a guaranteed empty middle seat.

Snyder said while ULCCs aren’t targeting business travelers, amenities and perks that come with new bundled fares make it easier for business fliers to choose ULCCs, especially if there are nonstop flight choices available.