Low-cost airline at Charlotte Airport adds popular tourist destination to its route network

Spirit Airlines will launch a direct flight from Charlotte to New Orleans this fall, the low-cost airline confirmed on Tuesday.

According to Spirit, nonstop service will begin on October 10. Nonstop service between Charlotte Douglas International Airport and Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport will be offered five times a week on Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Spirit has a presence in Charlotte Douglas alongside other airlines such as Delta, Frontier, Jet Blue and Southwest. The Florida-based company covers about 2% of flights at the airport.

Spirit began operations at Charlotte Airport in 2019, with direct flights to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Florida, Newark, NJ and Baltimore/Washington.

At the time, the airline’s vice president of network planning indicated that Spirit would continue its expansion in the state: “We are very optimistic about North Carolina,” the Charlotte Observer reported.

American Airlines handles about 87% of service at CLT. Charlotte Douglas is the Fort Worth, Texas-based company’s second-largest hub. In 2022, Kirby told the Observer that Spirit is not trying to compete with American Airlines.

“They are by far the largest airline with over 90% of the (Charlotte) market,” he said in 2019. “We are just trying to offer an alternative.”

According to the Airport Council International’s 2022 rankings, CLT is the seventh busiest airport in the world in terms of arrivals and departures.