The demise of Spirit Airlines is that of the demise of countless other carriers since the beginning of airline deregulation in the 1970s, from Braniff International to People Express to ValuJet — initial success and hoopla, overambitious expansion, untenable debt loads from that expansion, and collapse.
Granted, Spirit throws a few wrenches into the usual rags-to-riches-to-rags story.
For one, there’s the fact that much of the damage began with COVID. And then there’s the schadenfreude aspect: The low-cost carrier had developed such a nasty brand reputation, both for its customer service and its customers’ behavior, that rebranding itself as “Yugo” or “Enron Air” might have been an improvement image-wise.
And then there was the last-ditch effort of President Donald Trump’s administration to bail the airline out to the tune of $500 million, with the U.S. government effectively becoming the carrier’s largest shareholder. This was a move straight out of the 2008 housing market collapse, and both Republicans and Democrats — not to mention Spirit’s bondholders, who would likely have gotten shafted had the move gone through — seemed to buck against it.
In the end, it wasn’t enough. According toThe Wall Street Journal, Spirit was preparing to shut down effective 3 a.m. Eastern on Saturday morning.CNNconfirmed this shortly after 1 a.m. Eastern, citing two sources familiar with the airline’s shutdown plans.
Shortly after 2:30 a.m. Eastern, the airline made it official: “It is with great disappointment that Spirit Airlines has started winding down its global operations, effective immediately.”
— Spirit Airlines (@SpiritAirlines)May 2, 2026
The airline, which had a 3.9 percent market share in the United States — down from 5.1 percent last year, according toForbes— was set to run out of cash in just a matter of days.
And while the focus will be on the bailout not coming, what people will forget is that therewasa bailout for Spirit, and from theprivatesector.
It was killed by Democrats, specifically President Joe Biden’s administration, who thought that letting Spirit exist as an unsustainable separate entity would be good for competition and lead to lower ticket prices and more jobs.
Source: VidNews » Feed
