Mesa did not go that well for Spirit, we stopped flying there a decade ago.

 

Man, if only there were some areas slightly north of town that might skew those statistics.

I’m not super invested in the topic. There’s no need to be an ass.

Yes, they have baseline travel needs. Let me ask you to consider this...why are STL, CVG, PIT and any number of other large metro area airports deader than doornails? Those are all metro populations in the 2-3 million range. Don’t they travel? Somewhat, but once airlines de-hubbed them their true travel needs and airlines’ interest therein were revealed. PHX base population will want to travel out of the misery that is half their existence. Ok. What can we offer them to easily get to the few things they may want to do where other airlines can’t price match us, and travel isn’t a major hassle going backwards to get East? Florida and cruising the Caribbean mainly? They have Disney next door in CA and Vegas at their beck and call with SWA more than happy to play our games between bases. So, outside of that baseline travel need, the leisure travel opportunities that we can conveniently offer are limited. And that leaves the seasonal travel for the not hell on earth months for snowbirding, spring baseball, golf get aways and so on. That’s not our target audience though, as the poster above was so happy to note, we do get onesies and twosies who occasionally understand the game that’s being played by a legacy versus a ULCC.

Another way to look at it. Tucson is next door with a large military presence, university, some snowbirding and the exact same weather. Metro population is around 1M. They don’t have a Sedona or Scottsdale, or insert winter weather get away here. So the slightly affluent are less interested in airlining there. Even more than PSP, PHX is Tucson writ large.

 

My guess is we’ll see a MEM station open soon.

 

As someone that lives close to MEM, that would be awesome. It seems like it would fit the Spirit model, and plenty of space available I believe.

 

Whatever happened with IWA? Just wasn't making enough money?

 

Id like to think phx could handle a few more routes of people traveling to visit there...but i used to be a saucier back in san anton, would love to get back. City is pretty populous, though metro is far smaller than phx.

 

Loads weren’t great but back then if I recall, but it wasn’t a matter of “making enough money” vs “can make more money using the plane on xyz route instead”

Irony being we are discussing PHX on an ACY thread. Those ACY pilots might as well think PHX is Mars given the fact they rarely go past the Mississippi. Every leg the sun is either on the CA side or FO side, never in their eyes.

 

I just hit LAS and IAH within the last month - wasn't sure if that was international or not ;D

 

How long did it take for you and the CA to understand why it was 3 hours earlier for time? Haha.

“West coast time zone? What is that?!”

 

the Pacific timezone was mosdef an adventure!