Spirit Airlines yellow Airbus jet will soon land in Silicon Valley.
The Miramar, Florida-based carrier announced Thursday that it will add a brand new route map pin in San Jose, California, starting June 7.
Spirit will initially fly three routes from Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) to Las Vegas, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Diego.
The route to Vegas will operate twice a day, while the other two routes will operate once a day.
San Jose will become Spirit’s seventh airport to serve in California, along with the six existing destinations listed below:
- Burbank.
- Los Angeles.
- Oakland.
- Orange County.
- Sacramento.
- City of San Diego.
Spirit’s entrance in San Jose is interesting because it reflects a broader shift in return to the airline market hit hard by the pandemic.
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Airport take a lot of international service at the start of the pandemic and Spirit’s biggest no-frills competitor, Frontier Airlines, even pulled out of the city in September 2021.
In addition, Delta Air Lines has decided during the pandemic that it will leaving San Jose as a key cityincluding cutting off an important transcontinental flight to New York.
Now, Spirit’s entrance will make it the only ultra-low-cost airline serving San Jose, which will bring lower fares to the routes it will serve.
John Aitken, SJC’s aviation director, said in a statement: “Today’s announcement is a step forward for the Airport, our City and for air travel in our region. “This new partnership reflects the return of leisure travel and demonstrates how the airline market is shifting to expand towards new opportunities and approaches. We are excited to welcome the Spirit Airlines team to San Jose and showcase their unique and innovative brand at SJC,” he added.
Notably, Spirit did not add any new “roads” to SJC’s route map. Spirit will face Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines on new routes within California. Southwest also flies from San Jose to Las Vegas, while American Airlines has an exclusive history on the route between San Jose and Dallas-Fort Worth.
That said, the carrier is coming with some hot introductory fares, starting at $39 to Las Vegas, $59 to San Diego, and $89 to Dallas-Fort Worth. It will be interesting to see how Spirit’s opponents react.
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