For decades, Miamians in search of the cheapest flights had to make the hour-long trek up I-95 to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Not anymore.

In the last year, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Miami International Airport has become a magnet for domestic low-cost carriers. Come October, four of them - Frontier Airlines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue and Spirit Airlines - will all be offering flights year-round from MIA, up from one just last fall.

A change in how the Miami-Dade County-run airport charges airlines for gate space and the COVID-induced focus on demand for domestic travel created an unprecedented influx of low-cost carriers to MIA, airlines and airport leaders said. The airport has been working to lure the low-cost carriers for 20 years.

'There have been cold feelings and warm feelings with each and every one of them over a long period of time,' said Chris Mangos, the airport's marketing director. 'They're very welcome.'

Low-cost carriers are known for their cheaper ticket prices. Some of them charge for things traditionally included in the ticket price from a legacy airline, like snacks and seat selection.

Denver-based Frontier Airlines was the first low-cost carrier to debut at MIA in 2014. The lack of competition at the time was a big draw, said Daniel Shurz, Frontier's senior vice president in charge of network planning.

For many years Frontier kept its presence at MIA minimal. Then, in 2018, the airport began offering flat monthly fees for gates, called preferential use, as opposed to charging airlines each time they use a gate. The change reduced MIA gate expenses for Frontier by around 40%, Shurz said.

'It brings Miami costs to being competitive in the region,' he said. 'Before, that was not true.'

Airlines qualify for one preferred use gate per every five daily flights. Under the common use gate model, an airline with five daily domestic flights of 150-seat aircraft is charged $9.82 per seat and would pay $220,950 per month. Under the preferred use gate model, the airline would pay $55,514 per month - a major discount.

Since the change, Frontier has doubled down on Miami. In August 2019, Frontier served three destinations from MIA with an average of two daily flights. This month, the airline is up to 30 destinations and an average of 23 daily flights. Frontier employs 349 MIA-based pilots, flight attendants and support staff.

'We saw this incredible opportunity,' Shurz said. 'We've continued to grow because we've seen success in the market.'

Mangos, the airport marketing director, said he launched a program to attract low-cost carriers to Miami in 2002, 12 years before Frontier arrived. At first, the interest was almost non-existent as low-cost carriers focused exclusively on secondary airports with cheaper rates. But as the airlines matured, their strategies changed, Mangos said.

'There's always the question of when does a low-cost carrier grow up and become a legacy carrier like United, Delta, American?' he said. 'That is, you have done what you originally wanted to do, now where do you go from there? Like any business, if you don't grow, you're gone.'

Miami's fees remained higher than Fort Lauderdale's, but Mangos kept pitching. Southwest Airlines and JetBlue, both longtime Fort Lauderdale airport tenants, approached him about an MIA cost analysis - a sign that they're serious, he said - before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Six years after Frontier's first MIA flight, Southwest Airlines launched service from Miami in November 2020, followed by JetBlue in February 2021. The county's aviation department estimates the new service from these two airlines will generate an economic impact of at least $1.8 billion.

Miami had long been a requested destination for Southwest customers, said Brian Parrish, spokesperson for the Dallas-based airline. But the COVID-19 pandemic made it even more attractive as demand for leisure travel recovered ahead of business and international travel. The trend encouraged Southwest to invest in more domestic airports and Miami made the list.

Southwest started service at MIA in November with 12 flights per day to four cities. This month, the airline offers up to 24 flights per day to 14 cities. It has also increased service at Fort Lauderdale, up to 56 average daily flights to 28 cities. The company now employs 125 ground operations workers at MIA, Parrish said.

The latest low-cost carrier to hop on board is Miramar-based Spirit Airlines. The company approached Mangos about coming to MIA during the pandemic, he said.

The call was welcomed news after international travel - accounting for around 47% pre-pandemic - evaporated, and several European and African airlines stopped MIA service.

The shift has made MIA more attractive for low-cost carriers, said Bijan Vasigh, Professor of Accounting, Economics, Finance & Information at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

'This is the main effect of COVID-19 that has totally changed the dynamic of air transportation,' he said. 'Low-cost carriers fly to secondary airports like Fort Lauderdale instead of MIA, but now airports have excess capacity and want to take advantage of that.'

Expensive gate fees kept Spirit Airlines from MIA for years as it became the largest international carrier at Fort Lauderdale airport. But during the pandemic, MIA opened up more gates for preferred use, offering a fixed fee for airlines that maintain a certain number of flights from the airport per day.

The change did the trick.

In June, Spirit announced it will be launching service to 30 destinations from MIA in October. Last month, Spirit said it will be adding a 31st destination - Tegucigalpa, Honduras - in November.

International demand is coming back to MIA quicker than other markets, making the newbies well placed to take advantage by adding international routes from the airport. From January to June of this year, MIA saw more international passengers than any other airport in the country, Mangos said. Before the pandemic, MIA ranked third for international passengers, behind JFK and LAX.

Now that he's accomplished his goal hatched 20 years ago to bring these major low-cost carriers to Miami, Mangos is focused on attracting international carriers back to the airport that have reduced or eliminated service during the pandemic.

'It feels good,' he said. 'It's also good for our community and for our airport to have an incredible balance of carrier selections.'

(C) 2021 Electronic News Publishing, source ENP Newswire