Spirit Adds New Florida Destination to Route Map

South Beach, Little Havana or an Everglades tour sounds like a nice change of pace from Pittsburgh’s chilly winter weather, doesn’t it?

Spirit Airlines announced earlier this week that it will commence new nonstop service between Pittsburgh and Miami—the airline’s ninth destination from PIT—beginning Nov. 15.

Daily flights will leave Miami International Airport at 8 a.m. and arrive in Pittsburgh at 10:39 a.m.; return flights will depart from PIT at 11:29 a.m. and arrive at MIA at 2:15 p.m. Tickets are on sale now at Spirit.com.

Spirit will operate the flights with Airbus A320 aircraft, which feature amenities passengers can upgrade for purchase, including high-speed WiFi for in-flight connectivity and the airline’s “Big Front Seat” first-class style seating.

Spirit becomes the second carrier to serve Miami from PIT. American Airlines increased its service to twice daily in July. Nonstop service between PIT and Fort Lauderdale, about 20 miles north of Miami, is served daily by Southwest Airlines and Spirit.

Spirit also will resume daily, seasonal service to Fort Myers and Tampa from PIT on Nov. 15. Spirit joins Breeze Airways and Southwest’s existing nonstop offerings to Fort Myers and Tampa. Alongside Spirit’s seasonal resumptions, Breeze will launch service to Tampa Oct. 5 and Fort Myers Nov. 15.

Florida travel surges

It’s no secret Pittsburghers love visiting Florida. That’s especially true post-pandemic.

In the first quarter of 2023 alone, PIT saw its largest quarterly number of passengers traveling to and from Florida in more than two decades.

According to Department of Transportation statistics, nearly 2,900 passengers per day traveled between PIT and Florida destinations during the time period, the most since 2000.

The record-breaking traffic is attributed to the growing number of nonstop flights and seats in the market. In 2014, PIT had nonstop service to six total destinations in Florida; that number is now 14.

On average this year, PIT has over 17 daily nonstop departures to Florida cities. In terms of total passengers, PIT’s most popular market is Orlando, accounting for nearly a third of all Florida passengers, followed by Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers.

And the number of nonstop flights to Florida is continuing to grow.

In May, PIT’s flights to Jacksonville increased with Breeze launching seasonal service. Breeze became the second carrier to enter the Jacksonville market, joining ultra-low-cost Allegiant Air.

Orlando will also see increased service this fall. In addition to existing service provided by Allegiant (via Orlando-Sanford) and Frontier Airlines, both Southwest (four times daily) and Spirit (three times daily) will operate their highest number of flights to Orlando during the fall travel period.