Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) is always seeking to add flights from low-cost carriers, so airport officials certainly don’t like to see those flights go away.
However, at a recent meeting of the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority, Kevin Baker, the executive director of PTIA, announced that Spirit Airlines was ceasing a regular flight to Florida.
“They are taking down the Fort Lauderdale flight for the fall,” Baker said this week, adding that the flight could return to the airport’s dance card at some point.
“We hope that flight will return with demand,” Baker said.
Over the last year and a half, air travel has been virtually impossible to predict and plan for airports and carriers due to the coronavirus pandemic. In recent months airline passengers have been returning to the skies. However, new fears about the spread of the virus could change that. Things have been so hard to predict that the Airport Authority even stopped releasing some forward-looking stats based on future airline schedules that the Authority provided before the pandemic.
Baker said Spirit is maintaining a flight from PTIA to Orlando.
Price competitiveness for PTIA officials has been a prime concern for decades, with the airport contending for the same customers who use the larger airports in Raleigh and Charlotte.
Baker said PTIA is currently working to attract more low-cost carriers, but it’s a tough time, he added, to land a deal since there’s so much uncertainty in the air.
“The push for low-cost carriers continues,” Barker said, “but right now, the whole industry is trying to figure out what it needs to look like moving forward.”
That’s the Spirit!
This airline has had serious problems with cancellations and unacceptable changes.
The Airline industry is at it again, again.
The Airlines enjoyed a $50 Billion bailout during the Pandemic. As people (like me) want to get out of town for a change, we are faced with even more c%*p from the Air Kings, the Masters of Malfeasance, the NaBobs of Nofeasance, the The Industry of Irritation.
Book a flight somewhere, they are free to cancel and/or change it at any time. Don’t like your new itinerary? Too bad, it’s what they offer, or nothing. When I say nothing, I mean nothing. Try getting your money back, even though refunds were mandated by the terms of the bailout. Complaints to your credit card company, or to the govt, are referred back to your disfavorite Airline. Try another airline? Bon Chance.
We have tried for two years for a trip out of the Country. Nah gonna happen. Alaska Cruise sounds good. Who wants to endure a 6-hour flight stuffed into a 20″ seat, surrounded by fat midgets, to Seattle? You fly to Vancouver, but you may not get in, or out.
Don’t even want to get into baggage fees and angry & rude passengers.
Flying used to be fun.
It’s probably no fun anymore because good, law-abiding Patriots can’t bring their guns on the plane to help keep us safe from illegals carrying disease and changing TSA.
Bait and Switch Airlines. They dangle a $35 trip, then when you check in, there is a fee for your carry on. If you have any checked luggage, get ready to really bleed green. Cattle car seating, surly staff and a lottery on over booked flights.
For $35, you get what you expect – zip.
If you have time to spare, go by air!