Spirit Airlines will run another flight per day out of the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport starting next week.
Two Spirit flights will travel from the Unity airport to Myrtle Beach, S.C. five days per week from Sept. 5 until the end of October. This is the first time the airline has flown two flights out of the airport to the same location in one day, said airport Executive Director Gabe Monzo.
“When they commit to two flights a day out of the same airport and they know what we have to offer, we think that’s a good thing,” Monzo said.
Spirit also operates one flight out of the Unity airport to Orlando, Fla. five days per week.
The airline announced in July it would cut back on its daily Orlando flight in August and September — flying only Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Daily flights are expected to return in October.
Monzo said it is unclear if the flight increase will continue into the fall and winter, but he estimates Spirit will release its November flight schedule in mid-September.
“We’re pretty excited about the way things are moving along,” he said, “and we’re hoping for more.”
Monzo told Westmoreland County Airport Authority officials in June Spirit would schedule a meeting with them in late summer, likely to discuss the airline’s service at the airport. The meeting has not yet been scheduled, he said. This would be the first meeting between the airport authority and Spirit since March 2020.
Other discount carriers told Monzo in June they did not want to compete with Spirit at the airport, suspecting the airline would undercut their ticket prices.
Quincey Reese is a TribLive reporter covering the Greensburg and Hempfield areas. She also does reporting for the Penn-Trafford Star. A Penn Township native, she joined the Trib in 2023 after working as a Jim Borden Scholarship intern at the company for two summers. She can be reached at qreese@triblive.com.