There was a time when one out of every three passengers flying through Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport were carrying boarding passes from Spirit Airlines. Even as the ultra-discount airline moved in and out of bankruptcy and shaved down its flight schedule, it remained the dominant airline at the airport.
Spirit flew 11 million passengers in and out of FLL in 2024, marking the high point for the airline’s traffic there. Its 31.4% market share that year was only eclipsed by the pandemic-inspired travel boom of 2021 when it collected a 32.7% market share at the airport.
Spirit held onto its top market share in Fort Lauderdale for six straight years and looked to continue that reign this year until it abruptly shut down before dawn Saturday morning, a casualty of a bankruptcy turnaround plan that did not account for the rapid jump in jet fuel prices due to the war in Iran…