Spirit Airlines Offers One-Way Fares for a Nickel

It’s not free, but it’s the next best thing: Spirit Airlines is offering a short-lived sale with five-cent one-way fares, excluding government taxes and fees.

Spirit spokeswoman Rebecca Rivera said the five-cent fares are available for more than 10 percent of the seats on the flights on which they are offered. Spirit also is selling a bunch of tickets for the off-peak days of Tuesdays and Wednesdays at five cents per mile.

Customers must book the fares on Spiritair.com by 11:59 p.m. January 5 for travel on the dates as specified by individual market and by market direction.

Spirit pegged the sale to a “new cost structure” it said has decreased its cost per available seat mile, excluding fuel, to five cents. That’s even lower than Southwest, which reported an old fuel CASM of 6.38 cents for the third quarter of 2006.

Spirit, a privately held company, does not often disclose its financial figures, including its costs.

The five-cent sale, with marketing that features a character called “Five Cent” (a play on rapper 50 Cent), is even lower than the eight-cent sales Spirit offered last year. Spirit called those eight-cent fares “The Ocho” (Spanish for eight), with a marketing character called “Ocho De La Hoya” (like boxer Oscar de la Hoya) to knock out “High Fares Guy.”

Spirit will lose money on the fares, although it could make up some of the deficit if the customer buys a return ticket at a regular fare or books a hotel, buys a concert ticket or reserves a tee time through Spirit. But Rivera said the airline expects to make up for the loss by attracting new customers who will come back to the airline with repeat business.