San Juan, Puerto Rico continues to see dynamic passenger traffic as the island experiences booming tourism arrivals in the post-pandemic period.
In short, airlines have zeroed in on Puerto Rico, continuing to add new flights to the island from source markets across the continental United States, including low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines, which is one of the dominant carriers to the destination.
Now, Spirit has added another new nonstop route to San Juan, connecting the fast-growing West Coast of Florida with Puerto Rico. Spirit is now running a nonstop flight between Fort Myers and San Juan, a major new route for an area that has been growing dramatically since 2020.
The new Fort Myers-Puerto Rico flights are operating four times each week.
It’s a significant new route for an area of Florida that has a lot of high-spending travelers but few flights to the Caribbean. San Juan’s home as the regional hub of airlines like Silver Airways, Cape Air and Tradewind Aviation will mean new access to a host of island destinations.
Silver in particular continues two add new routes out of San Juan, including recently-launched service to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic and Antigua.
That means a traveler can now easily connect from Fort Myers to Antigua, for example, a route that just didn’t exist out of Fort Myers.
“We are extremely pleased that Spirit Airlines is inaugurating new nonstop flights to San Juan, Puerto Rico from Southwest Florida International Airport. San Juan is the most highly sought Caribbean destination at RSW,” said Ben Siegel, Executive Director of Fort Myers’ Lee County Port Authority.
In a statement, John Kirby, vice president of network planning at Spirit, said the addition of nonstop service to San Juan “creates an exciting new opportunity connect the two vibrant communities.”
Spirit continues to be a significant player in the Puerto Rico market; earlier this year, Spirit inaugurated four new routes to San Juan, with nonstop flights out of Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas and Chicago, followed by another new route between Hartford and San Juan in June.