Spirit Airlines is introducing a new fee, but it's for an option the carrier thinks customers will be happy about: in-flight Wi-Fi.

Spirit announced Friday that it will become the first North American no-frills “ultra low-cost carrier” to add that capability, unveiling an aggressive plan to equip its entire fleet of about 120 planes with Wi-Fi by next summer.
Spirit touted the move as fitting into a broader strategy to “invest in the guest" and its ongoing effort to improve customers' experiences with the carrier.
It’s an abrupt turn for Spirit, sometimes referred to as “America’s most-hated airline” – a tag earned earlier this decade when it struggled with on-time performance, customer complaints and an uneven roll-out of what was then a new fee-heavy business model.
But that has changed, says Spirit president Ted Christie, who points to an on-time arrival rate that’s recently been among the industry’s best and an improving rate of customer complaints.
Christie says adding Wi-Fi is is part of an "evolution" that's proving low-fare budget air travel doesn’t have to be awful.
“Someone who may have traveled with us five or six years ago is going to have a completely different experience today,” Christie says in an interview with USA TODAY’s Today in the Sky blog. “I think that’s what we’re excited to crow about.”
“We can show we are a best-in-class operator,” he says about the carrier’s efforts to improve punctuality and reduce cancellations.
“We can show that our overall onboard experience is improving,” he continues, noting what he calls “the friendliest flight attendants in the business who have now received guest-satisfaction training (and) the newest fleet in America with the cleanest airplanes.”
“And now (that) onboard experience includes Wi-Fi,” Christie says.
Despite Spirit’s apparent kinder, gentler approach to customer service, it is not wavering from its core no-frills, fee-heavy business model.
Wi-Fi will be the latest add-on fee offered by the airline. Spirit says its Web-browsing and streaming options will have an average price of $6.50, “with a cost range expected to be lower or higher based on the route and demand. “

“This price point is going to be very attractive,” Christie says, “given what we know is the overall average charged in the industry today.”
Costs for Wi-Fi on U.S. airlines can vary wildly. Southwest charges $8 a day per device, while Delta offers an advance-purchase $16 “day pass” for 24 hours of access on flights within North America. Often, prices are higher if fliers purchase access at the last minute.