Spirit Airlines’ 10 Emptiest Routes Revealed

Spirit Airlines’ ongoing woes have been well documented. And now, not helped by the much higher jet fuel price, it is being speculated that the airline could shut down this week, although that could be simple hyperbole.

According to the US Department of Transportation, Spirit carried 32 million passengers in 2025. This reflected its smaller fleet, cutting many airports from its network, operating fewer routes, and having much lower capacity because of its many problems. It was its fifth-best year to date. Traffic was down by 22% compared to 2024, which was its record year.

This Was Spirit’s Worst Route By Load Factor In 2025

DOT data was used to examine all the budget operator’s entire route network last year. In that period, the airline’s average load factor—technically, seat factor—was just 78.4%. Compared to 2024, its result fell by four percentage points. Despite far lower capacity (-24%), the greater drop in passengers (-28%), which partly reflected a loss of confidence and increased uncertainty, meant its load reduced year-over-year. Its international routes did particularly poorly (73.5% filled).

Assuming a minimum of 1,500 round-trip passengers, Spirit’s worst-performing route in this sense was Louisville to Myrtle Beach. This relatively short airport pair, which covers 427 nautical miles (781 km) each way, only filled 23.4% of available seats. Some 2,226 passengers were carried. Yes, the route was new—it started in March 2025 for spring break travel—and was served weekly, occasionally twice-weekly. Despite this, it did exceptionally poorly. Flights ended in July.

Days	Myrtle Beach To Louisville*	Louisville To Myrtle Beach**
Friday	4:13 pm-5:48 pm	6:43 pm-8:09 pm
Saturday	6:00 am-7:31 am	8:26 am-9:50 am
	* In mid-March 2025	** In mid-March 2025

Spirit’s Second To Fifth Least Popular Links

Charlotte-Fort Myers ranked second (23.5%; 3,883 passengers). As is often the case with such analysis, it was new—flights started in March last year—and only existed through May, before ending. Despite this, fewer than a quarter of the seats had passengers. Cirium Diio data shows that it was the first time the city pair had ever had two carriers, with Spirit briefly coexisting with American Airlines.

Fort Lauderdale-Key West was third (24.8%; 2,532 passengers), followed by New York LaGuardia-Richmond (26.9%; 3,936 passengers), and Hartford-Nashvlle (27.1%; 1,809 passengers). They all started last year—in the case of Key West, in November—but that does not excuse doing so poorly. Would they have done so badly but for Spirit’s current position? Or were they simply poor choices? All have since ended.

Norse Atlantic Boeing 787 on stand custom thumbnail

Norse Atlantic Slashes US Flights By 60%: See All Changes Now

The budget carrier will cease flying to another US airport, which makes seven so far.

Spirit’s Sixth To Tenth Least Popular Routes Last Year

According to the DOT, Detroit-Louisville was sixth (27.5%; 2,435 passengers). Memphis-New Orleans was next (30.8%; 2,249 passengers), followed by Nashville-Myrtle Beach (32.4%; 1,823 passengers), Miami-Atlantic City (32.6%; 3,212 passengers), and New York LaGuardia-Norfolk (32.6%; 4,827 passengers). All links started and ended last year. Except for Miami-Atlantic City, which Spirit served in 2021/2022, all were brand-new additions to the carrier’s map.

As part of Spirit’s network change, it added many more routes from Detroit—where it was once a significant operator—last year. It became the carrier’s fourth most-served airport by flights. Compared to 2024, it added 20 routes: Austin, Baltimore, Birmingham, Charlotte, Hartford, Louisville, Memphis, Milwaukee, Norfolk, Orange County, Pensacola, Phoenix, Punta Cana, Raleigh/Durham, Richmond, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, and San Juan.

When related to DOT data, the 20 additions had 274,852 passengers. That says little in itself, as it’s just a number. Just 63.6% of seats were filled, with 19 having loads of no more than 69.2%. The bottom five results were Louisville (27.5%), Hartford (34.0%), Milwaukee (38.0%), Richmond (39.5%), and Birmingham (41.1%). From May 2026 onward, only Charlotte and Raleigh/Durham remain, although the latter only has a half-a-dozen departures in the summer.

Rather than airport pairs with minimal traffic, let’s look at Spirit’s routes with 50,000 or more passengers. With a seat factor of 54.1%, the worst result in this sense was Philadelphia to Punta Cana. Part of the airline’s network since 2022, up to eight weekly departures were available in 2025. While this route has not technically been scrapped, flights are down by 95% year-over-year, with minimal services in January, August, and September.