Spirit Airlines to offer flights out of Rochester Airport

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Monroe County announced Tuesday that Spirit Airlines is coming to the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport.

Spirit will be offering non-stop daily flights to Orlando and non-stop flights four days a week to Myrtle Beach.

.@SpiritAirlines making an announcement that it’s adding non-stop flights to Orlando and Myrtle Beach from the @ROCAirport @news10nbc pic.twitter.com/rolGQiMqTC

— Jennifer Lewke (@WHEC_JLewke) February 15, 2022

Monroe County Executive Adam Bello says Spirit will be the eighth airline operating out of Rochester when it launches in June.

Spirit says it will be hiring 30 people to run operations locally.

Atul Kimria, Director of Airport Services, says Spirit Airlines was interested in expanding to Rochester before the pandemic but it had to wait for travelers to be willing to fly again, “we have been wanting to fly from Rochester for quite some time and we’ve seen the numbers rebound after the vaccination drive especially in 2021 we’ve seen a huge demand coming back once the confidence is definitely coming back in the travel community,” he told News10NBC on Tuesday.

Rochester Airport Director Andy Moore says the demand for flights has been steadily increasing over the last several months, “some of the restaurants have opened back up again, the car rentals are doing really well, our concessions are starting to do well again so it has that economic impact throughout the airport,” he says.

With winter break upon us, things are only getting busier.

“Starting on Thursday, we’re going to see full flights flying out of Rochester with a lot of people coming through the airport which is a great sign that people are returning to flying again,” Moore said.

Low-cost carriers Spirit, Frontier and Allegiant now have a presence in Rochester and while they offer direct flight options which is a plus for many families, the destinations are limited. Nonetheless, Moore says just their presence helps Rochester travelers when it comes to the price of flights on other airlines.

“Ultimately, the ultra-low-cost carriers will help lower those prices and people have choices and that’s a good thing,” Moore says, “what I would say if you decide to fly to Buffalo is you’re telling the airlines that they do not need to invest in Rochester when you fly a buffalo so, fly your hometown airport,” Moore said.