Spirit Airlines is a US-based airline that operates low-fare flights to popular destinations. The company began in 1992 and it headquarters is located in Miramar, Florida. Spirit Airlines has gone through many changes since its creation, but its mission statement has not changed – “To be the most desired travel retailer by providing affordable prices on high-quality products and services with an extraordinary experience”.
This blog post will analyze Spirit’s mission statement, explain what the company means by each of these three parts, and discuss their recent history as evidence this mission is well on its way to being achieved.
What Is Spirit Airlines’s Mission Statement?
Spirit Airlines mission statement is one of the most concise and straight-forward missions I’ve seen. I’m going to break down this mission statement, analyze each part of it, and discuss how they contribute to Spirit’s identity.
“To be the most desired travel retailer by providing affordable prices on high-quality products and services with an extraordinary experience.”
- To be the most desired travel retailer by providing affordable prices on high-quality products and services with an extraordinary experience. [key takeaways]
a) “…high-quality products and services” – Spirit Airlines only offers inexpensive flights to basic destinations such as Florida, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Ontario/Montreal etc.
Spirit Airlines Mission Statement Analysis
What Does “High-Quality Products and Services” Mean? This part of the mission statement is probably the most vague. Put differently, this part of the mission statement is ambiguous so it can be used a compliance means to achieve many things. For example, if you are looking at a flier website and they aren’t taking all three steps in their process, then you could say: “They clearly said they take high-quality products and services, but they’re not using those words properly”.
On one end of the spectrum, high-quality products could mean absolutely nothing but on the other end of the spectrum it could mean that all of their staff go through a rigorous hiring process.
Spirit Airlines’s Vision Statement?
Spirit’s vision is to be “the world’s favorite airline”. This is actually very similar to their mission statement. How would someone interpret their vision?
Spirit Airlines Vision Statement Analysis
Overall, we could say that Spirit is intending for Spirit to be the most desired travel retailer by providing affordable prices on high-quality products and services with an extraordinary experience. Although the words are longer it seems to us that this mission statement has been achieved.
What Are Spirit Airlines’s Core Values?
Spirit has 15 core values that they use to guide their employees. These values are: Integrity, Respect, Positive Attitude, Excellence, Accountability, Collaboration and Partnership, Innovation and Authenticity.
Spirit Airlines Core Values Analysis
These values sound very good. They are all words that we want to see in a company’s mission statement. For example, “positive attitude” is the same as “brand promise”. We’re fine until we get to the next two values:
- Respect – Spirit’s employees are respected for their hard work, dedication, and discretion. [key takeaways]
- Innovation – Spirit’s employees are innovative to make Spirit Airlines the most desired travel retailer by providing affordable prices on high-quality products and services with an extraordinary experience. [key takeaways]
- Authenticity – Spirit’s employees are authentic and transparent in all their dealings with each other, customers, and suppliers. [key takeaways]
The core values seem similar to the mission statement but we have a few concerns about it. For example, “being respected” isn’t necessarily the same as “providing an extraordinary experience”. The leadership team also seems to be putting a lot of effort into reinventing themselves (progressive). We’re wondering if this is just lip service or if they really mean it; since the company was founded in 1992 how could they not be innovative already? Also, how is being “authentic” going to improve sales? None of these words are directly responsible for increasing sales.
Spirit Airlines History
Spirit Airlines is as old as the air industry itself, and has been in existence for more than 20 years. [key takeaways]
Being established since 1992 implies that it was started after the FAA mandated the airline industry to get together and form a reasonable permit system. Was this just a convenient excuse by Spirit to blame someone else for their poor performance? Further, we have doubts about their history since they were founded in 1992 because there was already a competitor out there at that time.
Spirit Airlines Website
Spirit’s website is clean and easy to navigate, with lots of options for aircraft and seating choices available by section or by row.