Spirit drops Orlando service from Arnold Palmer Airport

Myrtle Beach flights will resume in mid-April.

By RICH CHOLODOFSKY
TribLive

Spirit Airlines is pulling the plug on its long-running Orlando service from Arnold Palmer Regional Airport next month, a move that leaves the Unity airfield without its most popular year-round destination.

The discount carrier confirmed Wednesday it has removed the Florida destination from its schedule effective April 15. The following day, Spirit will resume seasonal service to Myrtle Beach, S.C. Spirit spokesman Thomas Fletcher said in an email to TribLive the Myrtle Beach route will replace Orlando as the airline’s sole service from the Westmoreland County airport. The airline offered no further explanation for the cutback.

Gabe Monzo, executive director of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority, said he learned of the shift last month but has no information on whether Spirit might resume Orlando service in the future.

“They said they don’t have a lot of airplanes to go around, so that’s the decision they made,” Monzo said. “Myrtle Beach is a good city for us, and they’re flying there five days a week. It’s great we’re getting Myrtle Beach back, but I’m disappointed we lost Orlando.”

Spirit is the only commercial carrier operating at the airport. Its current schedule lists Myrtle Beach flights from mid-April through early September.

The airline is expected to emerge from its second bankruptcy this year. Local officials remained hopeful Spirit would maintain its Westmoreland County presence even as the company eliminated service at other airports nationwide over the past year.

Orlando has been the centerpiece of Spirit’s local schedule for much of the past decade. Last spring, the airline substantially increased its presence at the airport, adding service to Fort Lauderdale, Fla, alongside daily Orlando flights and seasonal Myrtle Beach service. At its peak last summer, the airport saw as many as three departures a day.

However, Fort Lauderdale flights were suspended last fall, and the airline reduced its Orlando schedule to a few days a week before briefly returning to daily service this year.

In February, the airline issued a statement touting its 15 years of service in Latrobe.

“Our Latrobe guests have truly embraced our high-value service for the past 15 years,” Andrea Lusso, Spirit’s vice president of network planning, said in that statement, which did not address the pending cuts.

The service reduction comes as the airport struggles with declining passenger numbers. Last year, the facility saw its lowest traffic since 2011 — the year Spirit first arrived. After averaging more than 300,000 annual passengers from 2015 through 2019, the airport saw just 119,379 flyers in 2025.

Despite the cuts, work continues on a $22 million expansion of the passenger terminal. Slated to open in June, the project will double the terminal’s size, add a second passenger gate, relocate security lines and update baggage systems.

“We’ll still be using it five days a week, but we’d like it to be more,” Monzo said of the new terminal. “We’ll deal with it and move forward.”