Right now, its main focus is to ride out the pandemic, and return to full-year profitability. Granted, materially expanding its market share will take time. With its advantageous cost structure, combined with its financial strength, it has plenty of potential to narrow this gap. The three largest carriers, legacy airlines American and Delta Airlines (NYSE: DAL), along with low-cost leader Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), each hold around a 15-20% share.

Right now, it holds just a 5.8% share of the overall U.S. It also opens the door for it to gain substantial market share in the coming years. Not only will it enable it to maintain its lead over the other low-cost carriers that trail it. This advantage has been key in making it the fifth-largest domestic airline by market share. And, it comes from its industry-leading low-cost structure. This airline play has long-term potential as well. The continued recovery will help SAVE stock continue to gain in the short-term. DonвЂ™t Forget About Its Long-Term Potential But, its long-term edge against the legacy carriers, and to some extent, rival low-cost carriers, will be what helps to keep it moving upwards long after we close the books on Covid-19. The continued improvements in travel demand will help the stock make up the rest of its losses. Yet, shares still have considerable runway.ДЄnd, not only because the stock, at $36.46 per share, remains around 15-20% below its pre-outbreak price levels. Since then, itвЂ™s delivered jaw-dropping returns for those who bought near the bottom. If you recall, shares briefly fell to prices in the single-digits. ThatвЂ™s why SAVE stock has bounced back tremendously from its initial pandemic-driven collapse last spring. With its assumption that said trend will continue, the companyвЂ™s guidance for next quarter says breakeven Adjusted EBITDA is attainable.ДЄgain, the market has already anticipated a massive recovery ahead for this carrier. Beginning in March, Spirit saw a material pickup in demand trends. Adjusted EBITDA margins continue to run high (negative 43.3%).Д«ut, per managementвЂ™s commentary, thereвЂ™s much pointing to improved results going forward. Revenue remains down year-over-year (with last yearвЂ™s first quarter being when the outbreak began to impact U.S. As I hinted at above, getting back to normal is still a work in progress. On April 21, Spirit Airlines released its numbers for the quarter ending Mar 31, 2021. But, with room to run in both the near-term and long-term, this remains a buy at todayвЂ™s prices ($36.46 per share). In anticipation of the comeback, the stock has mostly bounced back. So, what does that mean, for those who may be interested but havenвЂ™t yet entered a position? Diving into the details, itвЂ™s clear things will continue to improve as 2021 plays out. To some, this may signal investors have gotten ahead of themselves bidding travel stocks back up.Д«ut that line of thinking is short-sighted. Sure, as seen from its recent quarterly results (more below), results for January and February reflect a still-challenging environment.

Last year, when Covid-19 headwinds were at their peak, I made the case why, with its aforementioned strengths, this airline would bounce back relatively fast compared to legacy carriers like American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL).ДЇlash forward to now, and itвЂ™s clear this has started to play out.

Spirit airlines stock