ORLANDO, Fla. — Airlines serving Orlando International Airport (MCO)have added flights, routes and seats this summer after Spirit Airlines abruptly ended operations in May, shifting former Spirit passengers to other carriers.
Spirit Airlines flights accounted for 9% of all flights in and out of MCO. Since the closure, airlines including Southwest, Frontier, Breeze and Avelo have made changes aimed at serving passengers who previously flew with Spirit.
Frontier added nine flights in Orlando, and its total seats for sale are up 45% compared with last summer.
Breeze stated its total passenger seats in Orlando are also up 45% compared with last summer. Southwest now has 50 more departures per week than last year, and Avelo has added two new routes since Spirit’s closure.
Blaise Waguespack, a management, marketing, and operations professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said airlines regularly review routes, but the process is more complicated because of aircraft availability and fuel costs.
“They are doing fleet adjustments, turning in some older airplanes, getting some newer ones, and some of those newer airplanes are bigger airplanes; they have more seats,” Waguespack said.
Waguespack said airlines must weigh whether they have the planes needed for a route and whether the cost of operating it makes sense.
“’Do we have the planes, but also the cost of operating that route with the way fuel is right now? Will we do so?’ are decisions airlines are looking at,” Waguespack said.
Several travelers at MCO said they had previously flown Spirit and have since switched airlines.
“We fly a lot with Spirit, actually,” traveler Manuel Vargas said.
Vargas said he lost two Spirit flights after the shutdown and received refunds after a few weeks. He later rebooked his trips with Viva Aerobus.
Traveler Alexis Colon said she used to fly Spirit about once a year and now has turned to Frontier. “So now we kind of have to fly Frontier,” Colon said.
Waguespack said Orlando remains a competitive aviation market, and carriers must evaluate whether they have the route network and resources needed to expand service.
“This is a competitive marketplace,” Waguespack said. “It is just airlines have to again, that route structure, route network, what resources do we have available to get to Orlando comes into play.”
Some passengers said they still miss Spirit’s pricing and hope routes and fuel costs stabilize.
“We all have family to get to, and it is just kind of like you have to pick and choose now, which is unfair to us just because Spirit is now gone,” Colon said.
Passenger numbers across Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day travel were slightly lower this year compared with 2025. It is unclear whether Spirit’s closure played a role.
Experts recommend travelers compare prices across multiple airlines and consider nearby airports, including Sanford, when looking for fall travel deals.