Spirit Airlines adds two daily flights between Las Vegas and Denver

By Richard N. Velotta

Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012 | 6:32 p.m.

Fresh off the establishment of a crew base at McCarran International Airport and reporting a profitable 2011, Miramar, Fla.-based Spirit Airlines has add two new daily non-stop, round-trip flights between Las Vegas and Denver.

Airline officials said Thursday that flights would begin May 3.

Denver will become Spirit’s ninth destination from McCarran. Last week, the airline inaugurated flights to and from Mesa, Ariz.’s Gateway Airport.

Spirit will compete on the route with United, Frontier and Southwest airlines. Denver is McCarran’s sixth largest feeder market with about 1,100 arriving passengers a day. The new Spirit lift will add about 100,000 more seats from the market a year.

Spirit, which is expanding its fleet of Airbus A320-series twin-engine jets this year, made the announcement in conjunction with new flights between Denver and its four largest operational bases – Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport; Chicago’s O’Hare International and Las Vegas.

Flights from Las Vegas to Denver International Airport will leave daily at 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., arriving just under two hours after departure. Return flights will leave Denver at noon and 6:15 p.m.

Once the Denver service is in place, Spirit will become the fifth-busiest carrier at McCarran behind Southwest, Delta, United and American, with an average 22.6 flights a day, surpassing US Airways’ 20.6 average daily flights.

Southwest has 54 flights a week to Denver while Frontier has 38 and United, 35.

Spirit hopes to win market share with introductory “$9 Club” fares, which have a base fare of $9 — which grows to $28.79 after taxes and fees. The fares require customers to become members of a loyalty program with an annual fee.