Spirit Airlines announces next new destination: booming Nashville

Rapidly growing Spirit Airlines is expanding to Nashville, joining a long list of airlines drawn to the city's economic boom and tourism surge.

The discount carrier with the bright yellow planes plans to begin daily nonstop service between Nashville International Airport and six cities this fall, officials announced Monday. 

The cities are Baltimore, Las Vegas, New Orleans and three in Florida: Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa.

All but the Tampa flights begin on Oct. 10. Tampa service begins Nov. 5. Spirit will offer one daily flight in each direction on the new routes.

“Nashville is one of the fastest growing cities in the country and has a lot to offer,'' Spirit CEO Ted Christie said in a statement announcing the new flights. "From the best live entertainment and family-friendly attractions to a robust food and craft beer scene, there is something for everyone. We’re equally excited to bring our new Nashville-area guests to great destinations throughout the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Spirit is a pioneer of the airline a la carte model, offering bargain fares that come with nothing more than a seat (but not an assigned seat) on the plane and space for a small personal item. Carry-on bags, checked bags, soft drinks and snacks and boarding passes printed at the airport are all extra.

More: 11 things you need to know about flying discount airlines Spirit, Frontier and Allegiant

In a nod to Nashville's storied country music scene, a guitar-playing Christie announced the new service on YouTube by performing his own version of country superstar Tim McGraw's "Nashville Without You.''

Spirit is a relative latecomer to Nashville International Airport, even among discount airlines. Allegiant and Sun Country began Nashville service in 2018, and Frontier boosted its Nashville service with new flights to Trenton, N.J. 

Among major airlines, Southwest Airlines has been aggressively expanding in Nashville. It is adding nonstop flights to Burbank and San Jose, California, on June 9 and increasing the number of daily flights on several routes beginning June 10.

More: All nonstop flights out of Nashville 

It all adds up to an increasingly busy airport. Last year, passenger counts at Nashville International Airport rose 13.2 percent, to nearly 16 million, a record. The airport handled 1.86 million more passengers than in 2017, the third consecutive year it added more than 1 million passengers.

Spirit will face competition on all of its new routes to and from Nashville, though its competitor on flights to Orlando, Allegiant Air, serves a secondary airport, not Orlando International Airport.

Spirit, which has turned its operations around in the past couple years, has been on a growth spurt of its own. Earlier this year, the airline announced plans to expand to Charlotte, North Carolina, and Burbank and Sacramento, California. Those flights debut June 20. In May, Spirit began service to and from Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. In March, the airline began flights at Indianapolis International Airport.

Spirit, like other discount carriers, is quick to pull a route if it doesn't perform, moving the planes to routes where it sees better opportunities.