Spirit Airlines will begin service at Hollywood Burbank Airport in June with three daily flights to Las Vegas, the company announced Tuesday, March 12.
The one-hour flights, beginning June 20, will complement the airline’s existing service from Los Angeles International Airport to Las Vegas with one-way introductory fares starting at $53.30. The Vegas flights also will serve as a gateway to more than two dozen other Spirit destinations including Austin, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, Baltimore, New Orleans, and Philadelphia.
Locally, the service will create about 50 jobs for a variety of positions ranging from ramp agents, gate agents and baggage handlers to concession workers, supervisors and a general manager.
“We have grown immensely as an airline and much of that has to do with Las Vegas,” said Derek Dombrowski, a spokesman for the low-cost carrier. “We’ve had great success at LAX and we’re looking to have the same kind of success in Burbank. This gives us an opportunity to serve a large population within a giant geographic location.”
Spirit was the fastest growing carrier in Las Vegas last year, and as of July, it will have boosted passenger capacity through Sin City by nearly 50 percent compared with 2017.
Southwest Airlines already offers about 10 daily flights between Burbank and Las Vegas but the demand for more is always there, according to Hollywood Burbank spokeswoman Lucy Berghdorf.
“Thursday evenings and Friday afternoons are our busiest times for people traveling to Las Vegas,” she said. “The demand is quite heavy.”
Spirit’s departure and arrival times for the new service are listed below:
Burbank to Las Vegas:
- Depart at 1 p.m. — arrive at 2 p.m.
- Depart at 3:59 p.m. — arrive at 4:59 p.m.
- Depart at 8:05 p.m. — arrive at 9 p.m.
Las Vegas to Burbank:
- Depart at 11:10 a.m. — arrive at 12:15 p.m.
- Depart at 2:09 p.m. — arrive at 3:14 p.m.
- Depart at 6:15 p.m. — arrive at 7:20 p.m.
Hollywood Burbank Airport handled 5.2 million passengers last year, an increase of more than 11 percent from 4.7 million passengers in 2017. The airport employs about 2,400 people, including airline employees, Transportation Security Administration workers and others who handle car rentals, concessions and airport security.
Spirit employs 16,500 people companywide, many of which are subcontractors. The airline has more than 130 jets and operates 600 flights a day in 16 countries,
The Points Guy, a website that specializes in air travel and frequent flyer miles and points, ranked Spirit as having the cheapest airfares in its 2018 Best Airlines Report, but it ranked lowest in customer satisfaction and lowest for its frequent flyer program.
And there are incidental costs. The charge for a carry-on bag on a flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas (leaving March 13 and returning March 17, for example) is $35 for travelers who book through Spirit.com. And getting an assigned seat? That could set you back as much as $50, according to Clarke Media.
The airline also charges travelers $10 if a ticket agent assists them in getting their boarding pass.
