The federal government is stepping in to bring more affordable flights to customers at Newark Liberty International Airport.

The U.S. Department of Transportation reassigned more than a dozen peak-hour runway timings from Southwest Airlines to Spirit Airlines.

Government officials say the move gives customers at the airport more low-cost flight options, as well as increasing competition, after Southwest discontinued service in 2019.

Spirit Airlines will now be given 16 peak-hour runway timings that were previously operated by Southwest.

The Department of Transportation says they received applications from Spirit, JetBlue and Alaska Airlines for some of the timings, but the department says it chose Spirit because officials thought it was most likely to provide the lowest fares to the most consumers. 

The department is requiring Spirit to report additional data on customer service disruptions. They say that way, they can better monitor the situation.