USA: Spirit Airlines Starts Nonstop Flights Out Of Tampa International Airport

Spirit Airlines will soon start non stop flights out of Tampa International Airport and it plans to evolve its presence in the market even more.

Spirit is launching a new daily service to New York, Newark, New Jersey and Indianapolis on Thursday.

Last week, the airline also started service to Nashville International Airport.

The ultra low-cost carrier has added more new passengers in fiscal year 2019 than any other airline at TPA. With the new connections, Spirit will now serve 24 destinations from Tampa.

TPA has served a record 22.2 million passengers for fiscal year 2019 and Spirit has been responsible for nearly 40 percent of the passenger growth, or 437,000 passengers.

The airline's presence in Tampa Bay is also extending, with the announcement of a new partnership with ZooTampa.

Spirit will be the presenting sponsor of the updated Macaw Flyover. The flyover now has a new, longer flight path for the birds and more macaws in the exhibit.

Spirit Chief Commercial Officer Matt Klein on Spirit's plans for the Tampa Bay market:

On Spirit's growth in Tampa: We are about 25 percent larger this year than we were last year in our seat capacity. We peak out at 29 departures per day on our busiest days from here.

The Tampa has been growing overall. We have been 40 percent of new growth of customers at the airport. It's been a great partnership.

Generally speaking, we run one flight a day. Tampa itself is giving us a lot of thoughts on opportunities in the future here in terms of how much more we can do. When you are more than a destination like Tampa is becoming, you can support more flights year round and not just seasonal.

On determining what routes would work for Tampa: In the New York metro area we added service from Newark as well as LaGuardia Airport. Those by themselves tell you how we view Tampa. We would like to do more. When we come from larger cities, it's natural people want to come to Tampa.

We started the Nashville service and earlier this year added San Juan. Puerto Rico overall has been a really good market for us and Tampa feeding into Puerto Rico seemed like a fit.

Our product allows us to be successful in certain kinds of routes that other airlines may not be able to find the same path of success in.

We are looking for two main things pieces to the decision, if there is a natural affinity between city A and city B and if cities are being served by somebody else that fares seem to be too high.

It's our obligation to grow markets, grow routes. We just don't take market share, that's not what we do. What we do is make the market bigger overall. When fares are too high, there aren't enough seats.

On getting into large markets: In some airports they are constrained. There's not as many gates available and in some cases no gates available. Or in the case of New York's LaGuardia Airport, it's what is called slot control.

You can only have so many takeoff and landing slots we have access to. We have to make highly prioritized decisions. It's a highly sought after asset.

Here at the Tampa airport, we work closely with them and there's still room for growth here. We utilize our assets, gates as much as we can and we have more seats on airplanes than what most other airlines have and that allows us to spread our cost over more seats and lower fares.

On types of travelers for us, we are primarily a leisure airline for vacationers and people visiting friends and family.

We do care about business travelers and see more so small business owners and not large corporations. We have a big front seat product that's good for someone who is on a business trip.

USA: Southwest Planes Collide At Nashville International Airport, Nobody Was Hurt

One of the planes has just landed and was taxiing to the parking lot, while the second was preparing for departure.

During the towing, the Southwest Airlines plane preparing for a flight to St. Louis, Missouri, touched the wingtip of an identical airplane that was supposed to depart for Atlanta, Georgia.

Nobody was injured as a result of the incident.

Judging from the picture, which one of the passengers made during the flight to Atlanta, the other aircraft had damaged the upper part of its vertical stabiliser.

After the collision, both aircraft were temporarily grounded for inspection.

Two Southwest Airlines planes have collided on the tarmac of Nashville International Airport.

Airline officials say no injuries were reported in Saturday (July 21) night's collision.

An emailed statement from Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Michelle Agnew says the winglet of the St. Louis-bound Southwest Flight 1555 "came into contact" during pushback with the winglet of Southwest Flight 4580, headed for Atlanta.

A photograph provided by a passenger onboard the flight to Atlanta showed rainy weather and what appeared to be the top of the other plane's fin clipped off.

The airline says both planes returned to the gate "under their own power" and were taken out of service for evaluation. The Southwest flights will continue towards the scheduled destinations using new planes.

A spokeswoman for the airport directed inquiries to Southwest.


Tourism Observer

USA: Aircraft Shortage, Allegiant Cancels Flights At Orlando-Sanford Airport

Low-cost air carrier Allegiant Airlines canceled dozens of flights Thursday to and from airports in Florida, including some at Orlando-Sanford International Airport, because of problems with the delivery of new planes.

Las Vegas-based Allegiant issued a travel advisory saying it was canceling 26 flights Thursday and Friday, including 20 affecting destinations in Florida in Sanford, St. Petersburg and Fort Lauderdale.

The move came after Allegiant had problems getting recently purchased Airbus planes ready to fly.

Unfortunately, some of the delivery dates for aircraft scheduled to join our fleet have fallen short of the projections, leaving us with limited resources available and the very difficult choice to cancel certain flights, said an email from Allegiant spokeswoman Krysta Levy on Thursday.

Allegiant said it wasn't manufacturing delays that held up delivery of the planes, but the induction process that includes inspections, new interiors and exterior paint and registration with the FAA, Levy said.

The planes weren't coming directly from Airbus, but are used aircraft from other carriers.

Four flights at Orlando-Sanford International Airport were canceled Thursday. That included routes to and from Greensboro, N.C., and Knoxville, Tenn.

Levy said passengers were offered other flights or refunds.

Allegiant, which specializes in flying from smaller airports to vacation destinations, is in the process of transitioning from an older fleet of McDonnell-Douglas MD-80 aircraft to all Airbus A320 planes, both new and old.

Allegiant said the transition should be finished by end of the year.

Allegiant is one of the country's fastest-growing airlines, increasing passenger traffic about 12 percent in May 2018 compared with the same month the year before.

Meanwhile, Allegiant Airlines has begun offering nonstop service from Nashville, Tennessee to Tampa Bay.

The Nevada-based airline has launched a new year-round service that operates twice weekly between Nashville International Airport (BNA) and St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport (PIE).

We’re thrilled to launch this new route between Nashville and Tampa, said Drew Wells, Allegiant vice president of planning and revenue.

We know Nashville-area travelers will love having a year-round, nonstop and affordable option to visit the beautiful beaches of Florida’s Gulf Coast.

In honor of the launch, the company is offering way fares on the new route for as low as $72.


Tourism Observer

Delta Flight Makes Emergency Landing After Engine Cover Falls Off

A Delta flight from Atlanta to Chicago made an emergency landing at the Nashville International Airport following an engine-related issue, an airline spokesman said.

Flight 765, carrying 109 passengers and a crew, landed in Nashville after one of the Boeing 717’s two engine’s outermost covering, or cowling, fell off on the aircraft’s starboard side during turbulence, airline authorities said.

The aircraft landed safely and taxied to the gate normally, said Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant. The customers on board were fed in the terminal before boarding another aircraft to continue their travel to Chicago Midway International Airport on Sunday evening.

In a statement issued Sunday, Delta said it would fully investigate the incident as the safety and security of the airline’s customers and employees is its top priority.

USA: American Adds new routes to Cancun, Mexico

American Airlines (Dallas/Fort Worth) will offer new access to Cancun, Mexico when it adds new service from four U.S. cities in 2016. The new seasonal service to Cancun International Airport (CUN) will operate on Saturdays from Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), Nashville International Airport (BNA) and Kansas City International Airport (MCI). Service will start on March 5, 2016.

In August, American announced plans to provide customers a more seamless experience with its Airbus 319 fleet. A319s will be retrofitted with AC power ports at every seat and new overhead bins with increased storage for carryon bags. When complete, all A319s will be configured with 128 seats with 8 First Class seats and 18 Main Cabin Extra seats.

American is taking delivery of more than 100 new aircraft this year, giving it the youngest fleet of any U.S.-based network carrier. Orders include the Airbus A320 and A320neo family, A350-900s, Boeing 737 MAX, 777-300ERs and 787s, which will make American’s fleet even younger, more modern and fuel efficient.