Spirit Airlines Is Pulling Out of Akron-Canton Airport After All
GREEN, Ohio – Spirit Airlines, which suspended service at the Akron-Canton Airport in June, won’t return to the airport after all, according to an airport official.
Lisa Dalpiaz, vice president of marketing and air service development, said Spirit informed the airport late Wednesday that it would not resume service at the Summit County airport. Earlier on Wednesday, Dalpiaz told The Plain Dealer/cleveland.com that Spirit was merely postponing its return to the airport until May.
“Last night, we were informed by Spirit Airlines that despite good performance at Akron-Canton Airport they will not be relaunching service to Orlando (MCO) due to the continuous constraints on their network,” she said in an email. “Although we hate to lose any airline service, we do not anticipate a significant impact from this announcement as customers have many other exceptional vacation destination options from CAK.”
Dalpiaz noted that Allegiant Air just last week started nonstop service to Orlando Sanford International Airport, which serves as an alternative airport to the much larger Orlando International, where Spirit flew.
Spirit first launched service from the Akron-Canton Airport in 2016, with service to five cities. At the time, the move raised some eyebrows in Northeast Ohio due to the carrier’s growing presence at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, about 50 north of Akron- Canton.
Spirit, however, seemingly succeeded at both locations, selling cheap fares to Northeast Ohio vacationers headed to Florida, Las Vegas, Myrtle Beach and other leisure destinations.
The pandemic, however, changed everything. Earlier this year, and in 2021, Spirit and other carriers came under fire for their inability to handle increased travel demand following the dramatic downturn in flying due to the pandemic. Carriers canceled thousands of flights, leaving travelers stranded.
Since then, Spirit has trimmed its schedule in an effort to prevent future operational meltdowns.
In June, the airline announced it was suspending service at the Akron-Canton Airport, with a plan to return in November. This week, it scrapped plans for that return.
It’s unclear whether JetBlue Airways’ pending purchase of Spirit affected the carrier’s decision to leave Akron- Canton. That sale was announced in July; the Justice Department is currently reviewing the deal.
Officials at Spirit, based in Fort Lauderdale, did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2021, Spirit served 20% of the passengers at the Akron-Canton Airport – about 81,500 travelers, according to U.S. Department of Transportation statistics.
The airport has seen its share of airlines come and go in recent years. In 2017, Southwest Airlines departed the airport, while increasing service in Cleveland. Also in 2017, Allegiant Air left CAK to fly from Cleveland only to return to Akron- Canton five years later, in early 2022.
Read more:
What the JetBlue purchase of Spirit Airlines might mean for Cleveland Hopkins airport
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