Spirit Airlines is preparing to cease operations after the beleaguered company ran out of cash and a rescue attempt by the Trump administration appeared to stall.
The company struggled to make a deal with its creditors and secure funding to maintain operations, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the matter.
Good thing the US has a great high speed railway network. Oh wait…
They ran the only affordable flight I could take to see my family during the holidays
Legitimately the only budget airline left that flew to that city. Tickets will now cost me roughly 3x as much, and I don’t think I can afford that
Spirit and other airlines have been struggling with high oil prices that have pushed up the price of jet fuel. The company’s woes predated the war in Iran, though, as the company has struggled to increase post-pandemic demand.
Well yeah, the population that would normally fly Spirit are now unable to afford flying at all.
Spirit started out as the villain and ended up as the hero lol.
They popularized the low cost system in the US which absolutely wrecked quality of service from every other airline as they too started removing everything to cut costs.
But then Spirit was the only budget airline actually selling tickets for cheap and decent baggage bundles.
American and United offer the same net quality of service for 4x the price. Why whould I pay such a markup and still have to pay for carry on and checked baggages? Its not a budget airline but they sell "budget"services.
Now they all want the profit squeeze of Spirit without the lower fare.
I still remember when Delta flights above 3 hours had a full meal with multiple snack services. I don’t even think they give you regular sized pretzel bags anymore.
How do European budget airlines succeed while US ones fail?
High speed rail networks. (A) Planes have to directly compete with the fares of the trains, but also (B) You have the option to skip the prime airports and go to the cheaper one 90 minutes out. It’s not a problem. People can take the train in. Look at how many airports are in the London area. It’s insane. If the airport tries to regulate your fees up, you just go to a different one.
Sooner or later Bristol airport is going to rebrand as London-Bristol.
We are #1 at razor thin margins that implode instantly when literally anything somewhat serious goes wrong.
Usually also via leveraged debt keeping all the financial gears turning.
That’s too bad. Less competition will make tickets more expensive
Spirit Airlines - the “we have Southwest Airlines at home” airline
That’s the spirit!
I had some okay experiences with Spirit, but they “rescheduled” a flight one time by 13 hours that was essentially a cancelation, and I swore never to use them again for any trip that mattered. Between “ceasing operations” and a taxpayer-funded half-billion dollar bail-out, I choose ceasing operations.
