How time flies! Spirit Airlines celebrates 30 years at TPA
The low-cost carrier praised the Airport for being a great business partner and presented a donation to Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful.
Tampa International Airport and Spirit marked three decades of the airline serving Tampa Bay travelers with a celebration featuring treats and live music in the Main Terminal Event Space on Monday, April 24.
Airport CEO Joe Lopano welcomed Spirit VIPs by recounting how the airline first flew into TPA in April 1993 with service to Atlantic City, N.J. There were just four roundtrips that first month, but soon Spirit added service to Detroit, and last year carried more than 1.7 million passengers at TPA.
Spirit now connects Tampa Bay to 17 different cities nonstop, including a route to our most popular Caribbean destination – San Juan, Puerto Rico – and is still flying that route to Atlantic City.
Spirit’s Vice President of Guest Experience, Brand and Communications and Spirit Charitable Foundation President Lania Rittenhouse expressed how pleased the airline was to be at TPA, raving about the Latin band and pirate on hand to celebrate and praising Phoebe the flamingo, the giant statue that greets guests in the Main Terminal.
Praising the management teams at both TPA and Spirit, Rittenhouse and Lopano exchanged model airplanes. Rittenhouse then presented an award recognizing local Spirit workers and a $10,000 donation to the environmental nonprofit Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful, which was accepted by Executive Director Debbie Evenson.
To book a flight on Spirit, go to Spirit.com.
