Spirit Airlines dropping Mesa, moving to Phoenix in November

[azriverfan.]

Originally Posted by Pink Jazz

According to a post at Airliners.net, looks like this November, Spirit Airlines will be discontinuing service to the Mesa airport and will be moving all operations to Phoenix Sky Harbor.

I wonder why Spirit has decided to move their flights to Phoenix. This leaves Mesa with only one airline, Allegiant.

I'm not the least bit surprised this happened. I think Gateway has a long way to go to improve. It can't expect to get a lot of carriers without providing a quality airport. If you look at Southern California at their smaller airports like Burbank, they offer far more than Gateway. If it expects to offer quality commercial service and attract the likes of Southwest, it needs to build legitimate terminals, and provide better parking. Even a small airport needs basic amenities.

I know the Phoenix area has wanted a second airport for a while. I would not be surprised if Scottsdale ultimately builds a small airport in the north that will have Southwest and other small carriers. That area would serve Scottsdale, Cave Creek, Anthem, Pinetop, Prescott etc. It would be the size of the Burbank or John Wayne airport.

[phx1205]

I don't know why a second is needed at all. Sky Harbor has plenty of capacity, there rarely (if ever) are ATC delays as a result of congestion at the airport, and is situated in a very central location. I couldn't imagine N Scottsdale residents agreeing to commercial airport, there is already opposition to the large private jets that fly out of the Scottadale airport.

[observer53]

Originally Posted by phx1205

I don't know why a second is needed at all. Sky Harbor has plenty of capacity, there rarely (if ever) are ATC delays as a result of congestion at the airport, and is situated in a very central location. I couldn't imagine N Scottsdale residents agreeing to commercial airport, there is already opposition to the large private jets that fly out of the Scottadale airport.

Agree with this. The folks in N Scottsdale will never let that happen.

[Goober13]

Gateway airport is just like the small town airports many of the people from the rural Midwest who travel Allegiant are used to. It is just like Sioux Falls, Fargo, and that whole plethora of towns airports out there.

Without all of those foks coming here and keeping Allegiant alive, you wouldn't even need that airport. I just don't feel Phoenix has the population for a second airport with multiple major carriers yet. We don't have the 16 million people LA has to justify 4 somewhat major airports, or 3 like the Bay Area has.

[AlohaAZ]

Isn't Gateway already in the process of expanding the terminals and other areas of the airport? I would certainly use it if they could attract a Southwest or Virgin there. I'll never use Allegiant because of all of the horror stories I've heard.

[new2colo]

Weird that Gateway has such aggressive growth plans and they keep facing all these setbacks. First, their nonstop service to Hawaii ends and now they're losing an entire carrier. Most major cities rely on at least one reliever airport. It's strange that Phoenix is having such difficulty sustaining one.

[biggunsmallbrains]

You mean Break Your Spirit Airlines.