That’s the Spirit! Bare bones commoditisation of air travel at its finest

3 May, 2017

This month the Blue Swan Daily road tested the US based ultra-LCC, Spirit Airlines, on two sectors - Newark-Orlando and Orlando-Houston. For those travelling to the US and needing to get around domestically, or to/from Latin America, Spirit can be a good (and inexpensive) option, as the carrier offers a surprisingly extensive network.

As on all Blue Swan road tests, we paid our own way, and the airline didn't know we were coming, to ensure as authentic an experience as possible.

Spirit is an LCC that's executing well on a clear strategy focused on cost minimisation. When we were taxiing to the gate in Orlando the airline's mission was pretty well summed up by the cabin service manager, who stated, "help us clean this aircraft by passing every piece of trash to the crew, so we can keep this aircraft on time for its next departure - and keep passing the savings on to you with lower fares".

Most Spirit services are sufficiently full. The carrier has been operating at a load factor of more than 80% so far in 2017 (or four out of five seats occupied), which is a slight drop from the same period in 2016 and 2015, but is still very healthy.

Spirit Airlines monthly - Passenger load factor

Source: CAPA - Centre for Aviation and airline reports.

Note: Spirit Airlines traffic years end in December.

However, the Newark-Orlando service was remarkably lightly loaded, with less than a 50% seat factor. It was, in fact, a Tuesday morning, so that might have played a role.

With there being so few passengers on board and all internal fittings stripped right back (tray tables are just slightly larger than a postage stamp and attached to ultra-lightweight seats), we were off the runway in no time and shooting up like an elevator into the congested New York area air space.

Spirit's aircraft weight-saving measures are one of several strategies the airline employs to keep its costs among the lowest in the industry. Low average unit costs (measured in cents per available seat kilometre - CASK) help Spirit earn good profits, despite its offering of extremely low fares. Spirit also flies its aircraft hard, averaging over 12 hours a day - well above the industry average of 10 hours per day - and making the operation an efficiency machine.

Airline unit costs (CASK, cents per ASK): 2015

Source: CAPA - Centre for Aviation Airline Unit Cost (CASK) Index. (The CAPA Airline Unit Cost Index is an interactive graph of the relative positions of broadly 100 global airlines, in terms of CASK versus average trip length.)

The air fare is just one component of the revenue pie for Spirit.

All through the booking process (and online checkin process, not to mention the bag drop and boarding processes) Spirit is angling to sell passengers more stuff. And that's even before you board the aircraft. Then the onboard sales start in earnest, with everything from water (yes, $1.80 for water), to snacks, to credit card schemes on offer.

On to the real road test...

The passenger experience is utilitarian; there's no onboard WiFi or entertainment or even an inflight magazine, and the seat configuration is extremely tight. There's not a huge emphasis on customer service; more a focus on customers pulling out their credit cards (Spirit flights are cashless). The captain even neglected to turn off the seat belt sign until 70 minutes into the flight, eventually coming on the PA to say, "Sorry folks, I completely forgot about you back there!"

At least the captain - along with the rest of the Spirit experience - was honest. This is commoditised travel at its best. It's not pretending to be anything else. It's not pretending to care particularly, and better still - no one gets on a Spirit flight with an expectation of anything more, unlike the experience on so-called full service airlines that regularly, and often spectacularly, disappoint in the domestic US market.

Would I fly Spirit again? Absolutely. They were on time, inexpensive, and there were no pretences. For an SME business traveller, often with an open jaw itinerary in the US, Spirit is a good way to help join the dots, as well as saving the customer a lot of cash in the process.

About BlueSwan Daily Airline Road tests

We always pay our way and the airline does not know we're coming. If you'd like us to run a road test of a competitor airline's offering, please contact [email protected]