Spirit Airlines to Start Direct Flights from New Orleans to Cancun, Honduras After Pandemic Delay

May 14, 2021

May 14—Spirit Airlines said Thursday that it will start in July two new direct international flights from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport — one to Cancun, Mexico, and the other to San Pedro Sula, Honduras — both of which were supposed to have commenced in March last year but were delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The flights to Cancun will start on July 2 and to San Pedro Sula on July 8 and mark the first international flights from New Orleans for the airline. They will run four times a week to Cancun and three a week to Honduras.

The revival of Spirit's flight are the latest sign that air travel is picking up. All of the major airlines operating from New Orleans have picked up the frequency of their routes and some have added domestic routes as passenger traffic has picked up strongly over the past six weeks.

Ted Christie, Spirit's chief executive officer, said the new flights underline Spirit's focus on the Caribbean, Mexico and Central and South America for non-domestic growth, with the region now together account for about 15% of the airlines' overall business.

The Miramar, Florida-based Spirit is the eight-largest U.S. airline by enplaned passengers and it was hit, like other airlines, by the severe depletion in air traffic after the pandemic took hold last spring.

Traffic nationally has been steadily rising this year, including at the New Orleans airport. That has been reflected in Spirit's share price, which has tripled since the low point last year and, at about $33, has recovered about two-thirds of the ground it lost in spring and early summer last year.

Spirit's renewed confidence is supported by industry surveys that show potential travelers eager to resume flying to holiday destinations as the vaccination program in the U.S. and abroad continues to make progress.

The new flights brings Spirit's direct routes from New Orleans to 21 and the airline's and the airport's executives have noted the growing Honduran immigrant population in New Orleans, which is around 100,000 and one of the largest in America. Already, an estimated 20,000 people a year travel from New Orleans to San Pedro Sula.

The budget airline's flights to San Pedro Sula, which is Honduras' industrial center and the second-largest city after the capital, Tegucigalpa, will start June 11 and run on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

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