The ultra-low-cost air carrier Spirit Airlines shut down operations after 34 years in business and canceled all flights at 3AM ET on Saturday morning. Its website now redirects to spiritrestructuring.com, instructing fliers not to go to airports, with air traffic control records capturing controllers and pilots signing off to each other as its last flights came in for landings after the shutdown was announced.
A statement on its website said that for people who purchased tickets directly, “Refunds for tickets purchased by credit card and debit card have been issued, and will be processed by Spirit’s credit card processor.” A lawyer for Spirit said the shutdown could impact 17,000 jobs, reports the Associated Press, as the Air Line Pilots Association said its more than 2,000 pilots, as well as flight attendants, mechanics, dispatchers, and ground crews, “deserved better than this outcome.
For stranded travelers, other airlines have announced various rescue fare options. That includes special fares on Southwest for Spirit ticketholders, while JetBlue has $99 one-way fares for travelers with Spirit itineraries on the same route, as well as Blue Basic fare caps for the next week on its nonstop routes to and from Fort Lauderdale and San Juan.
American Airlines announced rescue fares on Spirit routes where it offers nonstop service, and said it’s looking into adding capacity with bigger planes and more flights. United says that customers with Spirit tickets through May 16th can “ buy capped fares for most one-way flights to Spirit destinations.” Frontier announced “systemwide rescue fare discounts,” and said it would add “nine additional routes, plus 15 additional daily flights across 18 former Spirit markets.”
In late 2019, Spirit took on billions in debt to lease new airplanes and add new destinations, just before covid hit and suppressed the travel market. Spirit has also faced higher maintenance costs after a Pratt & Whitney PW1100G jet engine used in many of its planes was recalled for a dangerous manufacturing defect, grounding nearly 20 percent of its fleet overnight.
And that was all before the war in Iran caused a spike in fuel prices that it didn’t have enough cash on hand to afford, as its restructuring with lenders projected $2.24 a gallon prices that had climbed to more tha $4.50 a gallon last month.
Reuters reports that talks with the White House about a “proposed $500 million in financing in exchange for warrants equivalent to 90% of Spirit’s equity” fell through, after Donald Trump said last month that his administration was interested in buying the carrier at the “right price,” similar to taking a 10 percent stake in Intel.
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