Spirit Airlines cuts PHL flights to Orlando, Nashville, and other locations
Most impacted routes will see a reduction in frequency while a route to Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport will be cut entirely for some months.
Spirit Airlines is cutting some flights at Philadelphia International Airport next month, according to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company.
Over 100 flights will be cut in February at PHL compared to the same time last year. Most impacted routes will see a reduction in frequency while a route to Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport will be cut entirely for some months. The Philadelphia Business Journal first reported on the changes.
Flights connecting PHL to Nashville; Las Vegas; Orlando; Atlanta; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Los Angeles; Miami; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; and Cancun, Mexico, will become less frequent in February.
The route to Houston is scheduled to return in April, according to Cirium. The aviation analytics company shared scheduled flight information for Spirit Airlines through May 2025.
Flights to Tampa and Fort Myers, Fla., which were cut from the schedule in May 2024, are expected to return in March and April respectively.
Some of the reduced routes were among PHL’s 10 most popular destinations in 2023: Miami, Atlanta, Orlando, and Los Angeles.
Spirit is one of the largest carriers at PHL, carrying roughly 1.94 million passengers in 2023. The largest by far is American Airlines, which carried some 17 million passengers at PHL in 2023, followed by Frontier with 3.46 million.
Spirit filed for bankruptcy protection in November. Prior to the bankruptcy filing, Spirit leaders planned to sell off some aircrafts and reduce its workforce to cut costs. The company furloughed some 186 pilots in September and expects to furlough roughly 330 more this month, Reuters reported in October.
A spokesperson for Spirit declined to comment on Monday.
“Spirit continues to operate a robust schedule at PHL, with flights scheduled to 15 nonstop destinations during the first and second quarters of 2025,” Heather Redfern, public affairs manager for the city’s department of aviation, said via email on Monday. “We look forward to our continued partnership with Spirit this year.”
Repairing engines, recovering from the pandemic, and more
At the time of Spirit’s bankruptcy filing last year, the airline had been struggling to recover from the pandemic. The company also was facing higher labor costs and was seeing revenue per mile take a hit from passenger fares. The company also faced competition from other airlines that offer cheap flying options. Spirit faces debt payments of over $1 billion this year and in 2026, the Associated Press reported in November. A planned merger with JetBlue ultimately failed last year.
The airline has also seen some airplanes removed from service because the engines they needed were not available.
In a November statement, Spirit said passengers could continue to book and fly with the airline and that tickets, credits, and loyalty points could still be used. It also noted that the company expected to complete the bankruptcy process in the first quarter of 2025.