Spirit Airlines is charting a bold course into 2026, growing its footprint across the Caribbean and Latin America with new and expanded service to Puerto Rico, San Juan, Cancún, Santo Domingo and other sun-drenched destinations. The ultra-low-cost carrier is sharpening its focus on high-demand leisure markets even as it trims weaker routes elsewhere, betting that budget-conscious travelers will continue to flock to warm-weather getaways if the price is right. The latest schedule filings and announcements reveal a network strategy that doubles down on San Juan as a Caribbean cornerstone, adds fresh links from Boston to key beach markets, and boosts frequencies from Florida hubs to popular resort destinations in Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

San Juan at the Center of Spirit’s Caribbean Strategy

Puerto Rico has quietly become one of Spirit’s most important leisure markets, and the airline’s 2026 schedule underscores just how central San Juan is to its broader Caribbean play. Spirit has spent the past several years layering in new nonstop links from the U.S. mainland to San Juan, while steadily increasing frequencies on existing routes as demand has surged from both visiting friends and relatives travelers and vacationers seeking an easy, domestic-island escape.

San Juan offers the rare combination of Caribbean beaches, historic neighborhoods, rainforest access and the convenience of U.S. territory status, which removes the need for passports for American citizens and facilitates smoother travel logistics. Spirit has leaned into that appeal by building a slate of nonstop options that connect Puerto Rico to major population centers such as Atlanta, Boston, Newark, Dallas and Chicago, creating a web of low-fare entry points to the island. That foundation now gives the carrier the flexibility to fine-tune capacity and introduce new pairings as it refines its 2026 network.

Heading into the middle of the decade, Spirit’s pattern in Puerto Rico is clear: protect and grow high-performing gateways while pruning underperforming connections. Recent schedule filings show certain routes, like Houston and San Antonio to San Juan, ending in early 2026, even as core hubs such as Fort Lauderdale and Orlando remain well served. The net result is a San Juan network that may feature fewer dots on the map, but stronger, better-supported routes designed for sustainability rather than sheer breadth.

One of the most prominent new pieces in Spirit’s 2026 puzzle is Boston, where the airline is adding direct service to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and Cancún in Mexico. From February 12, 2026, Spirit plans to operate daily nonstop flights between Boston Logan International Airport and Santo Domingo, alongside weekly Saturday service from Boston to Cancún, opening new winter-sun corridors for New England travelers.

For Santo Domingo, the move taps into a robust visiting friends and relatives market between the Dominican Republic and the northeastern United States, while also courting leisure travelers interested in combining colonial heritage in the capital with beach stays elsewhere in the country. Daily service signals confidence in year-round demand, not just peak-season holiday traffic. It also positions Spirit to compete directly with legacy and regional carriers that have long connected the Northeast with the Dominican Republic, with its hallmark low base fares and à la carte pricing.

The weekly Boston to Cancún route, meanwhile, is tailored to classic vacation travel, giving New England residents a nonstop escape to one of the hemisphere’s most established resort regions. By scheduling service on Saturdays, Spirit aligns flights with hotel check-in patterns and traditional one-week holiday stays, a familiar structure in the leisure market. Coupled with the airline’s broader presence in Cancún from other U.S. gateways, the Boston addition reflects Spirit’s belief that even in a crowded market, there is room for price-sensitive flyers seeking value over frills.

Fort Lauderdale and Miami: Springboard to the Caribbean and Mexico

South Florida remains Spirit’s primary stage for its Latin American and Caribbean ambitions, and the 2026 schedule reinforces Fort Lauderdale and Miami as the key springboards to destinations like Cancún, San Juan, Santiago and Santo Domingo. As spring approaches, the airline is boosting service from Fort Lauderdale in particular, responding to the annual spike in demand around school holidays and the broader spring break period.

Beginning in March 2026, Spirit is increasing its frequencies from Fort Lauderdale to a mix of domestic and international destinations, including Cancún, Guatemala City, San Juan, Santiago and Santo Domingo. These capacity bumps give Floridians additional options to head south for beach vacations while also accommodating inbound traffic from travelers who connect through South Florida to reach the United States. For many of these routes, Spirit has become a familiar low-cost alternative to full-service airlines, especially for passengers willing to travel light and manage their own add-ons.

The expansions follow a pattern established in prior winter seasons, when Spirit temporarily ramps up operations between Fort Lauderdale and selected Central and South American cities to capture peak demand before trimming capacity as travel softens. In Latin America and the Caribbean, this seasonality allows Spirit to keep aircraft deployed productively during the colder months in North America, when travelers are most eager for tropical escapes. As 2026 unfolds, the combination of spring break boosts and winter seasonal adjustments underscores Fort Lauderdale’s continuing role as a flexible, high-volume hub for the carrier’s southern network.

Puerto Rico Expansion Amid Operational Growing Pains

The push into Puerto Rico and neighboring Caribbean markets has not been without challenges for Spirit. As the airline has rolled out new flights and increased frequencies, it has simultaneously faced technical issues with its website and mobile app that have frustrated customers trying to book or manage travel. Reports of glitches affecting ticket sales, online changes and the use of flight credits have surfaced even as the carrier announces expanded service to San Juan and other Puerto Rican gateways.

For a low-cost airline that relies heavily on digital channels to keep distribution costs down, such disruptions have outsized consequences. Customers encountering error messages, convoluted check-in flows or locked-out change options may struggle to access the very low fares that draw them to Spirit in the first place. In markets like Puerto Rico, where family travel and repeat visits are common, consistent booking and check-in experiences can be as important as schedule and price.

Spirit is working to restore full functionality and maintain customer confidence while pressing ahead with its route growth. The airline’s strategy in Puerto Rico depends on attracting repeat business from both island residents traveling to the mainland and tourists returning year after year to San Juan, Ponce and other destinations. As 2026 approaches, resolving technology issues and improving self-service tools will be critical if Spirit hopes to convert its expanded Puerto Rico footprint into lasting loyalty rather than one-off bargain hunters.

Balancing Expansion With Network Retrenchment

While the headlines highlight Spirit’s new flights to Puerto Rico, Cancún, Santo Domingo and beyond, the carrier’s 2026 network is also marked by a wave of route closures. Recent schedule updates show service ending to several domestic and international cities early in the year, including Bucaramanga in Colombia, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Rochester in New York and St. Louis. Within the Caribbean and Latin America, there are also notable pullbacks, such as the end of certain San Juan connections from interior U.S. cities.

In January 2026, for example, Spirit plans to discontinue routes such as Atlanta to San Juan, Houston to San Juan and San Antonio to San Juan, along with Orlando to Punta Cana and Philadelphia to Cancún. These exits illustrate the airline’s willingness to walk away from underperforming or strategically misaligned markets, even if it means shrinking its footprint in the short term. By trimming weaker links, Spirit can redeploy aircraft to routes that generate stronger revenue per seat, such as the Boston to Santo Domingo and Cancún launches or increased flying from Fort Lauderdale.

This mix of growth and retreat reflects the realities of the ultra-low-cost model in a highly competitive landscape. Spirit is contending with pressure from both full-service carriers and fellow budget airlines, some of which are aggressively entering or expanding in markets where Spirit has historically been strong. The 2026 network therefore reads as a rebalancing act: strengthen core corridors, seize high-demand leisure flows and shed routes that do not meet financial or strategic thresholds.

Competitive Pressure From Other Ultra-Low-Cost Carriers

Spirit’s evolving 2026 network unfolds against a backdrop of intensifying competition from other ultra-low-cost carriers, most notably Frontier Airlines. Frontier has announced a raft of new routes rolling out between late 2025 and early 2026, many of them overlapping with Spirit’s existing markets, especially on leisure-heavy corridors linking major U.S. cities with Florida, Mexico and Central America.

Industry analysis indicates that a large majority of Frontier’s new routes intersect with Spirit’s network, effectively targeting the same pool of price-sensitive travelers. That overlap puts additional pressure on Spirit to differentiate through schedule convenience, reliability and ancillary offerings rather than just headline fares. In markets such as Cancún and the Dominican Republic, where multiple carriers are vying for the same vacation traffic, minor differences in flight times, onboard product and fee structures can tip the balance for consumers comparing options.

For Spirit, the answer has been to rationalize its network around routes that perform well even in a crowded field. The emphasis on San Juan, Cancún and Santo Domingo as pillars of its 2026 leisure strategy reflects both strong existing demand and the carrier’s confidence in its ability to compete on cost and connectivity. At the same time, the presence of a determined rival on overlapping routes reinforces the need for Spirit to maintain operational resilience and customer-friendly digital tools, especially as it courts repeat traffic from value-conscious travelers.

What Travelers Can Expect in 2026

For travelers planning their 2026 vacations, Spirit’s network moves translate into a mix of new opportunities and shifting options. New England residents will gain fresh nonstop choices from Boston to Santo Domingo and Cancún, opening convenient gateways to the Dominican Republic and Mexico without the need for connections in New York or Florida. South Florida flyers, meanwhile, can look forward to more frequency on key Caribbean and Latin American routes from Fort Lauderdale and Miami during peak spring travel periods.

On the Puerto Rico front, the picture is nuanced. San Juan will remain a central hub in Spirit’s Caribbean portfolio, especially from major gateways like Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, but some secondary links from cities such as Houston, Atlanta and San Antonio are slated to disappear in early 2026. Travelers in those markets may need to adjust their plans by connecting through other airports or considering alternative carriers. At the same time, the routes that remain or are newly introduced are likely to benefit from stronger schedules and more consistent demand, improving their long-term viability.

As always with ultra-low-cost carriers, passengers should be prepared to navigate a highly unbundled product. Base fares on Spirit can be attractive, particularly on new or highly competitive routes, but fees for bags, seat selection, priority boarding and other extras can add up quickly. In 2026, as Spirit continues to refine its network and digital platforms, travelers who take the time to understand the fee structure, travel light and book early are likely to reap the most value from the airline’s expanded presence in Puerto Rico, San Juan, Cancún, Santo Domingo and other leisure hotspots.

Outlook: A Leaner, Leisure-Heavy Spirit Airlines

By the time 2026 is fully underway, Spirit Airlines will look leaner in some parts of its network and more entrenched in others. The carrier is consciously trading breadth for depth, betting that a tighter focus on proven leisure markets will help weather competitive and financial headwinds. New and expanded service to Puerto Rico, Cancún, Santo Domingo and other resort destinations fits squarely into that strategy, enabling Spirit to deploy its fleet where sun-seeking travelers are most eager to go.

The coming year will test whether that bet pays off. Success will depend not only on filling seats at sustainable yields, but also on delivering a reliable, user-friendly experience from booking to boarding. With new routes from Boston, enhanced spring break capacity from South Florida and a fine-tuned Caribbean and Latin American network, Spirit is giving travelers more ways to reach the beaches and cities they crave. If the airline can pair those options with improved technology and steady operations, its 2026 expansion into Puerto Rico, San Juan, Cancún, Santo Domingo and beyond could mark a pivotal chapter in its evolution as a cross-border leisure carrier.