Spirit Airlines SWOT Analysis

1. Strengths

1.1. Spirit does not engage any type of alliance – which gives Spirit much more flexibility in pricing, policies, and procedures.

1.2. Spirit markets their $9 club online, in radio and TV advertisements, and in airport kiosks, and in flight promotions.

1.3. About 66% of all flights are booked directly from Spirit’s website.

1.4. About 41% of revenues are derived from revenue streams other than ticket prices

2. Opportunities

2.1. US interest rates remain Low

2.2. Air traffic is forecasted to grow 5.3% annually between 2012 and 2016.

2.3. Many Americans eagerly search for cheap flights to the Caribbean

2.4. Biofuel can preform as well or better than 100% jet fuel and can drastically reduce emissions and possibly increase fuel economy

2.5. The economy in Mexico is growing 4% annually

3. Weaknesses

3.1. Spirit appears to operate from a functional organizational structure.

3.2. Spirit receives roughly 85% of their revenue from USA and 15% from Latin America

3.3. Spirit does not provide a written mission statement on their website or Annual Report.

3.4. There is an absence of any women among top management.

3.5. Spirit has no marketing alliance with other airlines, greatly hurting international business

3.6. Spirit routinely has the highest number of complaints per passenger among US airlines

4. Threats

4.1. About 60% of Spirit destinations also are serviced by American and Delta

4.2. Governments’ taxes continually increase on airlines.

4.3. Oil prices may continue to experience volatile swings.

4.4. The airline industry is somewhat easy to enter as many airlines such as Spirit lease planes

4.5. Rival firms have merged and/or formed alliances, allowing greater liquidity and access to capital, unlike Spirit