Spirit Airlines temporarily reducing direct flights to Orlando, Florida, at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport
LATROBE, Pa. (KDKA) -- Spirit Airlines is making a few changes to flights coming in and out of the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Westmoreland County, and they may affect your summer travel plans.
If you are heading to Orlando, Florida, from the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in August, Spirt Airlines is cutting back service from a once-a-day daily direct flight to a once-a-day flight four days per week.
Gabe Monzo is the Executive Director of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority, and he says Spirit Airlines is scaling back flights to service airplane engines within their fleet.
"It's a recall, and some of the aircraft are going out of service for a period of time," said Monzo. "It is not a safety issue. It is just a standard recall, and they have to run them all through the process."
Despite having limited service to Orlando late in the summer, Monzo says the daily direct flights will be back in the fall for anyone who wants to head south.
Ridership is up at the airport, and the flights they operate to Orlando and Myrtle Beach generate an economic impact of $226 million annually for the region.
That number is likely to rise this September as Spirit Airlines plans to increase its Myrtle Beach fights from a once-a-day daily directs to a twice-a-day directs.
"Everyone hears reduction and they think, 'Oh my god, they're packing up, and they're moving out," Monzo said. "Well, that's not the case. With the increase in flights in September, we feel that that is a commitment from them and that they are making a yeoman's effort to try and bring the service to what it should be, and hopefully, bring better things to come."
For more information on flights and the free parking at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, click here.
