Spirit Airlines, when expanding into additional cities, primarily uses a market development growth strategy. This involves entering new geographic markets (new cities) with existing services (flights and routes), expanding their network to new locations to increase their customer base. More specifically, Spirit Airlines has recently expanded by adding new nonstop routes to cities like Chattanooga and Columbia, along with launching additional routes between cities it already serves, strengthening its network connectivity. This indicates a mix of:
- Expanding into new markets by serving additional cities (market development).
- Connecting existing markets with new routes between them (route expansion within existing markets).
This strategic approach aims to grow by increasing market coverage and optimizing route connectivity, rather than drastically changing products or services offered. In past years, Spirit also shifted focus from adding many new cities to optimizing profits by adding routes between existing cities and increasing flight frequency on strong routes, signaling a mature network strategy balancing expansion with profitability. In summary, Spirit Airlines uses a market development strategy when expanding into additional cities, often supplemented by route expansion within its existing network to maximize growth and profitability.
