Spirit Airlines shuts down at 3am est May 2nd

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97prizm

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Good morning,

I just saw this posted on a couple of websites but according to Avgeeks and others, the last Spirit flight was Detroit to Dallas this morning landing in Dallas just after Midnight cst. From reading Spirit optioned 70 percent of their fleet with the PW1100G which had a ton of teething problems early on causing delays and canceled flights. Add in fuel prices at double what Spirit expected to pay. They flew more passengers but were making less money per flight per passenger. When I heard Frontier, American etc were looking into offering to help potential stranded passengers I knew it wasn't good.
 
I was reading about this yesterday. Seems they were looking to our government for a huge bailout, which didn't happen. I'm sorry, but it's time taxpayers quit funding others' follies. If a company can't sustain itself without bailouts. then they should be allowed to fail.

I realize this is a great burden for those holding tickets for Spirit. Anyone who bought a ticket with a credit card and has not yet flown, by law, the charges will be reversed, although ticket holders will probably have to file a claim. Unfortunately, this is a cost of doing business for credit card companies, and will ultimately fall back onto all users of those credit cards.

There were questions whether other airlines will be able to take on Spirit passengers at no charge, as planes are already mostly filled with paying customers and the added weight significantly increases fuel consumption across a fleet.
 
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Read an article that Spirit filed Chapter 11 two times prior to the shutdown @ 3am EST today. IMO, they should have started increasing the price of flight tickets years ago to offset costs of running an airline. Maybe that would have saved them. Alot of major airlines already increased fares due to the higher cost of fuel nowadays. You have to operate in the black in order to survive. Mismanagement that should have been corrected.
 
I used to fly Spirit out of Niagara Falls to Fort Lauderdale all the time, I paid as little as $90 for a return flight! They stopped flying out of that airport a few years back and that’s a big part of why I haven’t been to Florida in 6 years
Allegiant still flys to Florida from there but is nowhere as cheap 🫤
 
50yr Street Mech said:
Read an article that Spirit filed Chapter 11 two times prior to the shutdown @ 3am EST today. IMO, they should have started increasing the price of flight tickets years ago to offset costs of running an airline. Maybe that would have saved them. Alot of major airlines already increased fares due to the higher cost of fuel nowadays. You have to operate in the black in order to survive. Mismanagement that should have been corrected.
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Numerous airlines have filed bankruptcy. US Airways was the only one to file twice and stay in business.
 
Two bankruptcy filings in two years, operating under Chapter 11, and still losing money.

It was several years ago, when they started losing money in traditionally good quarters (like Q3, summer travel) that the industry knew Spirit was in trouble. Two years ago, just before their first bankruptcy filing, they had net margins of -17%. That’s horrible.

One of the forces was propping them up was the aircraft lessors - who didn’t want 200 A320 series airplanes hitting the market at once and devaluing their aircraft portfolios, but even then, each restructuring saw Spirit shed airplanes, routes, and employees.

I appreciate the empathy for passengers who are now stuck, but many airlines, including United, are offering discounts to stranded Spirit passengers.

The folks who genuinely deserve your empathy are the employees of Spirit, who are now without jobs, and some of them will have to find their way home because they were out flying.
 
I wonder if PW engine issues would have mattered if they had been losing money for a while.

I saw a YouTube video of a former Airbus captain at Spirit immediately start looking for another job after the first bankruptcy. Now he is a FO at United on the 737. He knew he had to jump ship before it was too late and was willing to take anything at another major airline.

The economy is in bad shape and very difficult for thousands of former employees to find work. Very unfortunate.

I’m in Fort Lauderdale this weekend (F1 race) and drove by the airport today. I noticed about 11 Spirit Airbuses parked near FedEx cargo hanger away from the main airport.
 
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50yr Street Mech said:
Read an article that Spirit filed Chapter 11 two times prior to the shutdown @ 3am EST today. IMO, they should have started increasing the price of flight tickets years ago to offset costs of running an airline. Maybe that would have saved them. Alot of major airlines already increased fares due to the higher cost of fuel nowadays. You have to operate in the black in order to survive. Mismanagement that should have been corrected.
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I am not now ever was a business owner, but I think anyone who reasons anything knows you can't stay in business by consistently loosing money.
 
97prizm said:
Numerous airlines have filed bankruptcy. US Airways was the only one to file twice and stay in business.
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"Numerous airlines have filed bankruptcy. US Airways was the only one to file twice and stay in business."

Good old Allegheny Airlines (based in Pittsburgh) became US in 1979. Absorbed Piedmont.
 
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Dave Hess said:
I wonder if PW engine issues would have mattered if they had been losing money for a while.

I saw a YouTube video of a former Airbus captain at Spirit immediately start looking for another job after the first bankruptcy. Now he is a FO at United on the 737. He knew he had to jump ship before it was too late and was willing to take anything at another major airline.

The economy is in bad shape and very difficult for thousands of former employees to find work. Very unfortunate.

I’m in Fort Lauderdale this weekend and drove by the airport today. I noticed about 11 Spirit Airbuses parked near FedEx cargo hanger away from the main airport.
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The PW engine issues didn’t help, but they weren’t the critical issue.

The critical issue was the change in air travel - turns out that the ULCC model is broken. Airlines like Spirit, and Frontier, who charge passengers for everything from carry on bags (you read that right), to checked bags, headphones, literally everything, are all losing money. They haven’t changed and customers stayed away in droves because they could fly on United or Delta for a similar fare.

Even Southwest is transforming to meet current customer expectations. Adding first class, charging for checked luggage, offering assigned seats, and considering adding a widebody aircraft for international flights.

In the meantime, for those Spirit pilots caught up in all this, the United Pilot Contract requires the carrier to give preferential interviews to furloughed pilots from ALPA carriers and that clause has been implemented in United’s hiring this year - well over 1,000 pilots will be hired this year (the exact number is proprietary) at United, and Spirit pilots will get a second chance at a good career.
 
rstsco said:
Unfortunately, this is a cost of doing business for credit card companies, and will ultimately fall back onto all users of those credit cards.
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The charge-back comes from, or should come from Spirit's accounts....well maybe there is no money there? Maybe it's on hold?
 
rstsco said:
I was reading about this yesterday. Seems they were looking to our government for a huge bailout, which didn't happen. I'm sorry, but it's time taxpayers quit funding others' follies. If a company can't sustain itself without bailouts. then they should be allowed to fail.

I realize this is a great burden for those holding tickets for Spirit. Anyone who bought a ticket with a credit card and has not yet flown, by law, the charges will be reversed, although ticket holders will probably have to file a claim. Unfortunately, this is a cost of doing business for credit card companies, and will ultimately fall back onto all users of those credit cards.

There were questions whether other airlines will be able to take on Spirit passengers at no charge, as planes are already mostly filled with paying customers and the added weight significantly increases fuel consumption across a fleet.
Click to expand...
Those credit card charges were already part of the bankruptcy consideration - I doubt the cardholders, or companies, were giving Spirit the money, until the travel took place, while they were in Chapter 11. That’s simply not how it works when an airline is in chapter 11.

It’s a vicious cycle - they sell seats, but don’t collect until the person actually travels, but in the meantime, companies that provide fuel, parts, catering, or even entities that lease gates, are demanding cash up front, not the usual 30 day float on those charges, knowing how likely they are to get paid if a shutdown occurs.

Spirit had those credit card liabilities on the books, and it counted against them, and then, even though they were selling seats, cash wasn’t coming in until later.

United placed a ceiling on tickets for routes that Spirit flew - so, they won’t honor a Spirit ticket (that’s like giving away the product for free, since the Spirit ticket has no value), but they are restricting the fare increases that occur as planes fill up to give those Spirit customers a break.

If you bought something at Lowe’s, and didn’t yet have it, you wouldn’t expect a Home Depot to give it to you for free just because the Lowe’s went out of business/shut down - so don’t expect any airline to honor Spirit tickets since the tickets have a value of zero dollars at this point.
 
edyvw said:
Could a merger with JetBlue save them? Maybe.
Could the offer from Frontier save them? Maybe.

But the common denominator here is that it was a horribly run company.
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The Jet Blue merger made the most sense, common markets, common aircraft types.

But it was blocked by DOJ.

However, given Jet Blue’s losses recently, I think the merger would have doomed them both. Simply too hard to change Spirit rapidly enough to bring back profitability. Their losses were huge.

And Jet Blue’s loss of 8% in Q3 of last year (to Spirit’s 17%) wasn't good - they are hemorrhaging cash - and struggling to change the product to survive.

So, for Jet Blue’s sake, DOJ did them a favor.
 
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Astro14 said:
The Jet Blue merger made the most sense, common markets, common aircraft types.

But it was blocked by DOJ.

However, given Jet Blue’s losses recently, I think the merger would have doomed them both. Simply too hard to change Spirit rapidly enough to bring back profitability. Their losses were huge.

And Jet Blue’s lost 8% in Q3 of last year (to Spirit’s 17%) - they are hemorrhaging cash - and struggling to change the product to survive.

So, for Jet Blue’s sake, DOJ did them a favor.
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Maybe blocking the merger saved JetBlue? Who knows.
It was a poorly run company without vision at the most decisive time.
Jet Blue already jumped to cover their routes. Maybe it is an opportunity for JetBlue? Who knows.
 
Astro14 said:
The PW engine issues didn’t help, but they weren’t the critical issue.

The critical issue was the change in air travel - turns out that the ULCC model is broken. Airlines like Spirit, and Frontier, who charge passengers for everything from carry on bags (you read that right), to checked bags, headphones, literally everything, are all losing money. They haven’t changed and customers stayed away in droves because they could fly on United or Delta for a similar fare.
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But that's not quite what Spirit and other ultra low cost carriers were competing with, which is "basic economy". I'm looking at the options for United Basic Economy, and there isn't even an option for a standard carry-on sized piece when paid for. And then higher prices for check-in bags depending on how far along in the process the payment is made. Not quite Spirit level, but it looks pretty similar.

Carry-on bag​

Carry-on bags are free on flights* to South America, across the Atlantic and to international destinations across the Pacific.​
​
On all other flights, you’ll have to check your carry-on bag. You cannot bring it with you onboard.​
​

Checked bags​

On most** international flights across the Pacific, you’ll get one free checked bag.​
​
On all other flights, you'll have to pay. For tickets purchased before April 3, 2026, bag fees start at $35 if you prepay, $40 in the lobby and $65 at the gate. For tickets purchased on or after April 3, 2026, bag fees start at $45 if you prepay, $50 in the lobby and $75 at the gate. You cannot gate check bags for free.​
 
I think it is an opportunity for JetBlue, to cherry pick the most profitable of Spirit’s routes and adjust their flying.

As the Spirit aircraft end up in the hands of other airlines, the flying on those routes will return, maybe not all of them to the same level, but it will return. There are a lot of untapped, and underserved, markets both in the US, and abroad.

The airlines need more hardware, and a couple hundred Airbus are about to become available.
 
y_p_w said:
But that's not quite what Spirit and other ultra low cost carriers were competing with, which is "basic economy". I'm looking at the options for United Basic Economy, and there isn't even an option for a standard carry-on sized piece when paid for. And then higher prices for check-in bags depending on how far along in the process the payment is made. Not quite Spirit level, but it looks pretty similar.

Carry-on bag​

Carry-on bags are free on flights* to South America, across the Atlantic and to international destinations across the Pacific.​
​
On all other flights, you’ll have to check your carry-on bag. You cannot bring it with you onboard.​
​

Checked bags​

On most** international flights across the Pacific, you’ll get one free checked bag.​
​
On all other flights, you'll have to pay. For tickets purchased before April 3, 2026, bag fees start at $35 if you prepay, $40 in the lobby and $65 at the gate. For tickets purchased on or after April 3, 2026, bag fees start at $45 if you prepay, $50 in the lobby and $75 at the gate. You cannot gate check bags for free.​
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Well, that’s exactly what they were competing with.

“Basic economy“ was intended to attract spirit and JetBlue customers to United by offering the same product at a similar price, but with the benefits of access to a much wider route network and a much better customer loyalty program.

The bankruptcy at Spirit, and the losses at JetBlue, suggest that basic economy, as a strategy, is working.

And it wasn’t just United that started offering that. Delta offers the same kind of thing. And it turns out that brand loyal Airlines like Delta and United are out-performing the rest of the industry, by a significant margin.
 
Astro14 said:
Well, that’s exactly what they were competing with.

“Basic economy“ was intended to attract spirit and JetBlue customers to United by offering the same product at a similar price, but with the benefits of access to a much wider route network and a much better customer loyalty program.

The bankruptcy at Spirit, and the losses at JetBlue, suggest that basic economy, as a strategy, is working.

And it wasn’t just United that started offering that. Delta offers the same kind of thing. And it turns out that brand loyal Airlines like Delta and United are out-performing the rest of the industry, by a significant margin.
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I've flown basic economy a few times on Delta. But we were allowed a carry-on included in the fare. And that was before 2019, when Spirit was actually doing pretty well even with the competition. So there's a lot more that they were dealing with. At least now, fuel costs put them over where they couldn't recover.
 
y_p_w said:
I've flown basic economy a few times on Delta. But we were allowed a carry-on included in the fare. And that was before 2019, when Spirit was actually doing pretty well even with the competition. So there's a lot more that they were dealing with. At least now, fuel costs put them over where they couldn't recover.
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Engine problems, fuel cost, these are minor factors, and while they have slightly reduced profitability at other carriers, they don’t begin to explain Spirit’s -17% net revenue.

Spirit believed that by shedding people and shrinking, the profitability would return, but their problem was deeply structural, not on the margin, but at the core of their business.

When they exited bankruptcy for the first time, their projections of revenue for the following quarters were wildly optimistic.

The customer stayed away. Spirit wasn’t offering them a competitive product and the revenue reflected that.

If you search my posts from a year ago, talking about Spirit, I used the words “circling the drain” back then.

It was pretty clear to anybody in the industry who paid attention to the revenue and the 10K filings, that Spirit wasn’t gonna make it.

Well, pretty clear to anybody except their own management.
 
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