Detroit Metro Airport is raising fees on all airlines to recoup revenue lost from the bankruptcy of Spirit Airlines.
Travelers are likely to bear some of those costs.
“So what happens if the airport charges more to the airlines? The airlines will be increasing the airfare,” said Selim Ozyurek, a former airline executive who now teaches airline administration and business courses at Western Michigan University’s College of Aviation. “The airlines will be charging it to the passengers.”
Beginning July 1, landing fees the airlines pay Metro will rise about 10%. Rental fees are set to rise as well.
At the Evans Terminal, where Spirit operated from six gates, airlines like American, United, Frontier and others will see their rents go up about 13%. At the McNamara Terminal, home to Delta Air Lines and its partners like Air France, rents will rise about 1%.
“With the passenger facility charge shortfall that we are anticipating from the loss of Spirit, we’re anticipating our debt to be increased by about $3 million, so our revenue requirement is going up,” Amber Hunt, the airport’s chief financial officer told the Wayne County Airport Authority Board last month.
Preliminary numbers show that since Spirit left the Evans Terminal, revenue from concessionaires near its former gates was down 40-60%. Other concessionaires in the terminal saw their revenue fall about 10%. Parking took a hit, too, with activity at the Big Blue Deck down about 20% in May of this year, compared with May 2025, according to Airport Authority data.
Spirit was Metro’s second largest carrier behind Delta, moving more than 1.7 million passengers is 2025. It also leased about 10 acres of property on the west side of the airport, where it built and operated an aircraft maintenance hangar.
As of late last month, there were still three Spirit aircraft and seven aircraft engines on the property, along with maintenance equipment, tools and parts. The bankruptcy court will determine what happens to those assets.
The repair hangar is almost 127,000 square feet and the airline paid Metro about $174,000 a year in rent on the property, according to a lease obtained by the Free Press.
Revenue crunch
In all, Spirit provided almost $27 million in total revenue to Metro. The fee increases will help offset that loss, but it’s not as simple as it sounds, Ozyurek said. Airlines pay fees for each takeoff and landing. If those fees increase, airlines could change their service.
For example, Ozyurek said, an airline could look to cut costs by reducing its Detroit flights from twice a day on smaller aircraft, to once a day on a larger one. That would reduce the fees it pays, though passengers would have fewer options for reaching that destination. Airline profits could get pinched, too.
Metro also faces a risk from essentially raising prices, he said, which could prompt airlines to route some traffic through other airports. In the end, passengers are likely to feel it, he said.
“We are going to have increased prices,” Ozyurek said.
Spirit’s branding has already been removed from the ticketing level and gate area inside the Evans Terminal and the authority is in the process of removing road and jet bridge signs that carried it.
Frontier Airlines, which has one gate at the Evans terminal, has requested another gate and possible more in the future.
“Following Spirit’s shutdown, we added nonstop service from Detroit to both Fort Lauderdale and Las Vegas back into our schedule,” Frontier Airlines spokesman Rob Harris said in an email. “Our network planning team is continuing to evaluate our overall route network to determine future route additions as well, and we anticipate increased capacity from DTW starting in July and through the winter.”
Jet Blue also has inquired about adding additional service through Detroit, Authority CEO Chad Newton told the board last month, though nothing has been finalized yet. The industry faces a shortage of both aircraft and pilots, which complicates matters, Newton said.
“We do believe that … this backlog is not going to be filled in the next three months,” Newton said. “It’s going to take time.”
Contact John Wisely: jwisely@freepress.com. On X: @jwisely
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: DTW travelers could see higher airfare prices after Spirit bankruptcy
Reporting by John Wisely, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By John Wisely, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
