Spirit Airlines, the ultra-low-cost carrier that expanded rapidly throughout the 2010s but faced significant headwinds in recent years, shut down and began the liquidation process early Saturday morning.

The Dania Beach, Florida-based carrier, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August of 2025 — its second bankruptcy in less than a year — had been requesting a bailout from President Donald Trump’s administration, according toForbes.

However, the terms of the proposed $500 million bailout were “untenable” toSpirit’sbondholders — particularly the fact that the bailout would give the government the right to take a 90 percent stake in the nation’s seventh-largest airline — and the deal also faced criticism from both parties and even some within the Trump administration.

Spirit was due to run out of operating cash within days. There had beenrumorsthroughout the month of April that the airline was preparing to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy — which would effectively liquidate the company’s assets as opposed to simply reorganizing it — but that had yet to materialize.

Friday’s events, however, seemed to crystallize the fact that Spirit had no future as an operating company and would likely shut down beginning in the early hours of Saturday morning.

CNNconfirmed the news shortly after 1 a.m. Eastern, citing two sources that said the 3 a.m. shutdown was going into effect.

Shortly after 2:20 a.m. Eastern, the airline made it official: “It is with great disappointment that on May 2, 2026, Spirit Airlines started an orderly wind-down of our operations, effective immediately. To our Guests: all flights have been cancelled, and customer service is no longer available. We are proud of the impact of our ultra-low-cost model on the industry over the last 34 years and had hoped to serve our Guests for many years to come,” theirwebsiteread.

The airline had declined to speculate on its future Friday, with a spokesperson telling Forbes, “Spirit is operating as usual.” However, no Spirit planes were in the air as of 2 a.m. Eastern, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware, and numerous sources were reporting that the airline’s last flight —Spirit Flight 1833, from Detroit to Dallas-Fort Worth — landed at 12:17 a.m. Central Time, 1:17 a.m. Eastern.

Spirit Airlines flight NK1833 from Detroit to Dallas DFW is the airline’s final flight after over 40 years in the industry.https://t.co/q72rQzZPTIpic.twitter.com/6FjPCODA17

— Turbine Traveller (@Turbinetraveler)May 2, 2026

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