Spirit Airlines to cut flights to Fort Lauderdale from Arnold Palmer Regional Airport
LATROBE, Pa. (KDKA) — Spirit Airlines is eliminating another flight from Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.
The move will leave Orlando as the only daily destination out of Latrobe. First, Spirit Airlines cut seasonal flights to Fort Myers, Florida, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Now, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Paul Brophy and his wife love flying out of Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, or at least they did.
"We used to fly out of here five, six times a year," Brophy said.
But the Greensburg couple is not happy with the news that Spirit Airlines has cut yet another flight to points south.
"They used to fly to just about anywhere," Brophy said. "Now they cut back so dramatically."
According to the Westmoreland County Airport Authority, on average Arnold Palmer Regional Airport sees about 150,000 passengers flying in and out annually. All of it means dollars and cents for local businesses.
"We have a lot of people who stay here and basically start their vacation with us," said Kevin Zilli, general manager of the SpringHill Suites by Marriott Pittsburgh Latrobe.
"We'll notice a bit of dip in the traffic because of it," he added.
"We have a tremendous amount of traffic that comes through our restaurant on a daily basis for these flights," said Anthony Denuzio II of Denuzio's restaurant. "We will miss it."
The restaurant is located inside the airport.
"It definitely impacts our customers that are here currently, our employees, and most importantly these cutbacks are going to impact Westmoreland County," he said.
But while it may seem like dark clouds are forming because Spirit has cut a flight to the sunshine state, Westmoreland County Airport Authority Executive Director Gabe Monzo said it is what airlines do.
"It's all part of the business," he said.
Monzo said while it's unfortunate that Spirit cut another seasonal flight out of the airport, there is hope.
"There are a lot of customers out there that want to go different places, and if this airline doesn't want to do that I'm sure there are other airlines that do," Monzo said.
