Thursday, January 31, 2002 - Denver International Airport expects to soon land another airline. Spirit Airlines, a privately held discount carrier based in Florida, next week will announce the launch of service from DIA beginning in May. The 11-year-old airline is expected to start serving Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and possibly other destinations from DIA with nonstop flights. This month, Alaska Airlines said it will begin serving Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Boise, Idaho, from DIA in late April. Spirit's fleet includes 24 MD-80 jets and six DC-9s, the company said. But the carrier is expected to announce soon that it is replacing the older DC-9s with new aircraft. A representative for Spirit declined to comment in detail about the airline's plans for serving Denver, including how many flights a day it will operate at DIA. She said an announcement from the airline will probably come Wednesday. Spirit, which touts itself as "the low-fare specialist," said bookings with the airline require no minimum stay, no Saturday night stay and no advance purchase. But "low, one-way fares are always available." "Spirit Airlines has insisted on providing our customers with the absolutely lowest possible fares to many popular locations," the company says on its website, www.spiritair.com <HTTP://www.spiritair.com>. "The only restriction is that tickets are non-refundable." DIA officials said they have been in contact with Spirit about serving Denver but cannot comment on the airline's plans. Officials would not say which DIA concourse Spirit will use or how many gates the airline will lease. Some airlines are trading and adding gates on DIA's C concourse, and after the reshuffling is complete, the airport is expected to have only two spare gates available for new carriers. Officials of Alaska Airlines said they want to be located on DIA's close-in A concourse. DIA plans to redo the computer systems for some international gates on A so Seattle-based Alaska and other carriers can use those gates. Landing two more airlines this spring would be a coup for DIA. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the airline industry suffered an overall contraction, as many consumers postponed air travel. Spirit said its passenger traffic declined 16.7 percent last month compared with December 2000. Spirit's traffic decline was consistent with drops in passenger volumes suffered by many airlines in the months after Sept. 11. Ned Homfeld, Spirit's chairman, recently said his carrier expects to fill more seats early this year "due to the anticipated return of leisure travel for the winter months, especially to Florida and Myrtle Beach, S.C." In addition to serving Fort Lauderdale, where the airline is based, Spirit flies to Fort Myers, Orlando, West Palm Beach and Tampa in Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Los Angeles; Chicago; Detroit; New York's LaGuardia Airport; and Atlantic City, N.J. In May, the carrier starts seasonal service to Oakland, Calif., from Detroit. The airline also serves Myrtle Beach, S.C., a popular East Coast resort. Denver Post