Spirit Airlines, the RyanAir of North America, shut down last weekend. Just like Lime, they will be missed.
I have only flown Spirit once, but it was a memorable one. In fact, it was my first flight into the United States as an adult (I came to New York as a very young child). As I sometimes joke, my Plymouth Rock was Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The weather was particularly more inviting.
A lot of people hate discount airlines. Understandably so, their staff are (understandably) abrupt, their seats are cramped, they have a tendency to nickel and dime you at every step (“want to print out your boarding pass, that will be $10”). It’s 30’000 feet away from Singapore First Class. RyanAir, the most famous low cost carrier, has a 1.3 star rating on Trustpilot. For context, Lockheed Martin, the weapon’s manufacturer, has a 3.8.
But as someone who has flown on a lot of budget airlines in my life, I have seen a lot. But one thing I have NEVER seen is an empty seat. People may say they want a pleasant experience, the champagne in the departure lounge, and the stewards fawning over every request. But when you see what they DO, what a lot of people want is to get from A to B as cheaply and as reliably as possible.
RyanAir, SqueezyJet, and Spirit all do exactly that. They’re safe (RyanAir have never had a fatality), reliable (RyanAir is Europe’s most punctual airline), and cheap (you can fly from London to Barcelona next week for $24, which is $10 less than getting the train from Paddington to Heathrow Airport).
Competition is for losers, as Peter Thiel famously remarked. But for consumers, competition makes us winners.
I’m going to miss having Spirit as an option; even if I don’t fly with them anymore, they kept the bastards honest.
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