After months of planning and promotions, Spirit Airline’s inaugural flight from New York to The Bahamas, is set to touch down at Nassau International Airport at 12:50 p.m. today.
The low-fare, non-stop service out of New York’s LaGuardia Airport, is being offered on Spirit’s newest Airbus A319. Fares start at $94 each way, excluding taxes. The three-hour flight, expected to leave New York at 9:40 a.m., will accommodate regular passengers and Spirit Airline executives. They are expected to be greeted by representatives from the Ministry of Tourism, as they disembark. A press conference will follow at the said airport’s VIP Lounge.
Spirit will no doubt face stiff competition from low-fare carrier JetBlue, which has been flying direct from Nassau to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport since Nov 1, 2004. However, Spirit’s chief marketing officer, Barry Biffle, said the airline was not concerned about competition from JetBlue, as it already competes with that airline and other carriers in its Ft. Lauderdale/New York route. “We’re the lowest cost carrier in LaGuardia/Ft Lauderdale today and we compete with JetBlue, which flies to JFK Airport. We can offer a lower fare than they can because we have lower costs,” he said.
“And everything that JetBlue can do for The Bahamas, we can do and more. The question is not whether we can compete with Jetblue but whether Delta, U.S Airways and others can compete with Jetblue and us.”
Lynne Koreman, Spirit’s senior director of marketing and communications, added that the airline was pleased to offer the fight between the two cities.
The aircraft will only spend one hour on the ground in Nassau, as it is scheduled to take off at 1:50 p.m., returning to LaGuardia at 4:45 p.m.
By: MINDELL SMALL, The Nassau Guardian
