Big news announced for budget carriers Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines, SouthWest Airlines announced return of a service not offered since March 2020. And Frontier announces new baggage restrictions.
Today Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines announced a proposed merger. This is not really a surprise, many in the industry has been expecting a merger between these two carriers for years. Both Spirit and Frontier operate fleets of Airbus aircraft, they both run a point to point model instead of the hub and spoke model used by the major carriers, and they have complimentary routes.
This merger will move the new airline to the number 5 spot of most miles flown, jumping ahead of JetBlue and Alaskan but being behind United, American, Delta, and SouthWest. It’s not been announced which brand the new airline will continue under, or if a rebranding is planned. And this is subject to shareholder and Justice Department approval.
We don’t yet know what this will mean for consumers. Spirit Airlines lead the industry with number of complaints per 100,000 passengers. This dubious honor was previously held by Frontier. There is a good chance that this merger will give the new airline the ability to more quickly move assets around to better handle cancelations and delays and hopefully give travelers a better overall experience.
And more news from Frontier, the airline recently announced that as of March 1 there is will be a reduced weight limit for checked bags. The new weight allowed will be 40 pounds per bag. Most airlines including American Delta and United have a weight limit of 50 pounds per bag. Carry on bags with Frontier can weight up to 35 pounds.
A spokesman for Frontier Airlines told Travel + Leisure “Reducing the maximum allowable weight for a standard checked bag encourages customers to avoid overpacking, which helps reduce overall aircraft weight and conserve fuel, in keeping with the mission of America's Greenest Airline”.
SouthWest Airlines is resuming alcohol sales starting February 16. The airline originally suspended alcohol sales in March 2020 and intended to resume sales in June 2021. The suspension was further postponed due to an alarming uptick in reports of unruly passengers.
It’s not just alcohol that is resuming, the airline will resume offering tonic water, apple juice, Coke Zero, Dr. Pepper, hot tea, and hot cocoa on flights of 176 miles or more.
With this SouthWest joins the other major carriers such as United and Delta in serving alcohol inflight. American Airlines has been serving alcohol for premium economy, business class and first class, but has yet to resume the sale to main cabin passengers.