Unique: Spirit Airlines Adds Flight Between LGA & LAX

It would seem it would degrade from an airlines EWR/JFK operations to run this 1 day a week...which is why I think we have never seen anyone do it. The people that don't live and breathe travel will expect it to run daily, and not understand why it only runs 1 day a week. Also, how does the rule deal with IRROPS? If LGA has a storm/etc, can NK run a flight on Sunday instead, or is it a hard rule based on time and not on circumstance?

Meh. Saturdays have always been a lull in travel -- especially business travel. My guess is AA knows this and it's why they don't bother to reposition a premium heavy 321T for one day only -- especially with way fewer international connection feeder options on the eastern bound flights. In addition, the commute to JFK vs LGA on a weekend is all the more easy to stomach as a passenger.

This doesn’t really make sense.

Spirit should have chosen to operate daily from EWR TO LAX, but I guess the Nyc to lax market is so big they figure they won’t have trouble filling a plane once a week

I know LaGuardia is improving, but it would still suck to deal with LGA's problems just to get on a Spirit flight for 5-6 hours. Godspeed, you brave souls looking to save a few bucks lol

It's great for publicity, but as noted, if the plane doesn't go it would be a nightmare to reaccomodate on a connecting NK itinerary -- maybe through FLL? Also if inbound LGA misses curfew or bad weather, ACY used to be the LGA diverting airport. That was WAY too much for me. I cannot imagine the chaos of flying that route for anyone less aware of these issues.

"The people that don’t live and breathe travel will expect it to run daily, and not understand why it only runs 1 day a week."

Completely reversed.

Normal people go to expedia, type nyc to la, put in their dates, and then pick whatever looks cheapest. Sometimes they'll move the dates a day forward to save 30$. Why on earth would they care to investigate if the flight operates on Wednesdays?

Saturday only flights are an industry staple.

I'm imagining the lack of service is to do with rumway length / payload restrictions...?

The perimeter rule wasn't imposed to 'protect' JFK and EWR but help control the number of flights at LGA because it was getting over crowded.

LGA/LAX Saturday flights I believe have been tried in the distant past with limited success. However, we're in a different era than 20 years ago. AA for awhile even did LGA/ORD/SNA on a Saturday. This was around maybe 2005. I remember staying onboard at ORD as I was in F and seated very comfortably under a blanket. I also remember the FAs complaining there was no cleaning crew at ORD and they had to "tiddy" up the plane.

Now flying Spirit LGA/LAX (sans the Big Front Seat) isn't something that I'd want to experience.

Once a week and strictly for leisure travelers. DL tried this route in 2005-2006 on a 757 and dropped it. US, and I think, AA have also tried LGA-PHX and / or LAS. None lasted but these were different times, different cost structures, etc...I don't see NK making much of a splash on a once weekly LGA-LAX route, frankly.

It’s all about money. I learned this when playing golf with Gerald Greenwald of United back in 2000. I asked why do you fly the EWR LHR route? He barked back at me. BECAUSE IT MAKES MONEY. I still kicked his ass at golf.

@PDT they could go LGA-DTW-LAX because NK has a base at DTW

@james s thats my point. If you hear cousin Bob flew Spirit, and liked it from LGA to LAX to visit Aunt Joan, you may be tempted to book just like him. Thats the entire reason behind loyalty programs. If there is NO option to fly it on other days, its mostly a mess. Its not worth the small profit it would make for the UA/DL/AA's of the world.

A321T is way too premium heavy to be put on Saturday LGAs, plus a new flagship catering contract at LGA (just for the few flights operating on a per-week basis). Planes need to be flown into LGA (from LAX SFO BOS etc) and backups will be hard to find for irrops.

Only other airline it makes sense for is Southwest, since it doesn't normally fly out of JFK or EWR at all, but does fly out of LGA.

I don't know why NK doesn't offer LAX/LA Area flights out of a smaller airport, like ISP. Seems with leisure flying now being the ticket, people would sign up for a smaller airport...and you can fly it 7 days a week.

If the rule was retracted, could we see more airlines operating transcon flights out of LGA? Perhaps even transatlantic?

Two thumbs way up!!
For anyone who's tried to get into Manhattan by car from JFK, this is a real plus, even if it's on a Saturday and the departure times are less than optimal.

"Thats the entire reason behind loyalty programs."

No, the entire point is to get people to pay higher fares when charging the company card so they can cash in a fry trip to Aruba. Not really a thing with Spirit

One thought I always wondered about is operating cost. Do we know anything about differences in operating costs, comparing JFK to LGA. Since JFK is larger and has seemingly more space, perhaps operations are less costly.
My calculations are to always aim for JFK. Space means less ground congestion and long runways are never bad.

Sometimes I feel these armchair cowboys writing these articles and commenting think that us airline professionals are smoking when making decisions. If a flight is daily or not is entirely irrelevant to the crowd Spirit is targeting and since they are leisure focused, they will easily spend a 1 week vacation in LA or NY. Once weekly flights are a touristic airline staple in Europe, it makes perfect sense for Spirit to offer this, not for any other airline despite Allegiant and Frontier maybe.

Other airlines may not do it because of customer issues like parking. Fly Tuesday out of JFK and return Saturday to LGA. For mass transit folks ok but for people like me who drive that’s a problem. So 1x a week in and out of LGA would alienate some people who aren’t booking Saturday to Saturday service

So to run the service for a few is likely not worth the operational costs

What’s going to happen to this flight now that JetBlue has bought Spirit?

This flight doesn't exist anymore. The last time Spirit flew it was on June 4: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/NKS2152/history/20220604/1440Z/KLAX/KLGA