BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – A South Florida airline celebrated a major milestone, as Spirit Airlines marked its 30th anniversary at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
The low-cost carrier, based out of Miramar, celebrated its third decade of flying out of FLL Monday.
To mark the occasion, the airline held a Latin-themed fiesta in the middle of Terminal 4, complete with a salsa band.
When Spirit first started service out of Fort Lauderdale back in 1993, their planes only traveled to one destination — Atlantic City.
Now, the airline flies to more than 60 different airports and have grown to become FLL’s largest airline, carrying more than 100 million passengers in that timeframe.
“We’ve grown significantly. We’re now the seventh-largest airline in the United States. Back then we were a very small airline,” Spirit CEO Ted Christie said. “We introduced a new way of flying in the United States around the mid-2000s. That really drove low fares into the market and what that’s done is expanded opportunity for people who never traveled before.”
As it stands now, Spirit employs some 5,000 people across South Florida.
That number will continue to grow as the airline prepare to open its brand-new world headquarters in Dania Beach in early 2024.