What Went Wrong With Spirit Airlines?

Spirit Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection in November 2024, the first major U.S. airline to do so since 2011. The iconic budget airline hasn’t had a profitable year since 2019 and it’s lost more than $2 billion since 2020. Faced with mounting losses and looming debt payments, Spirit has furloughed hundreds of pilots and offered salaried workers buyouts. It sold some of its Airbus fleet and cut routes. The airline has struggled with shifting demand, a spike in costs, and a Pratt and Whitney engine recall grounding dozens of its jets, weaker-than-expected sales and a failed acquisition with JetBlue Airways. How did the icon of U.S. budget air travel get here and what’s next for the low cost carrier?

Chapters:
1:21 The rise of Spirit Airlines
2:45 Challenges
5:08 Competition
8:59 What’s next?

Produced and Edited by: Erin Black
Animation: Jason Reginato
Supervising Producer: Jeniece Pettitt
Editorial Support: Leslie Josephs

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What Went Wrong With Spirit Airlines?

[pianofixer]

Spirit has always been the Greyhound of the Sky. It’s not a bad thing—it is what it is. Spirit was a life saver for me when I was in a long distance relationship. Grab your backpack, $50 fare, and see the person you love for the weekend. It would be a shame to lose ultra low cost routes.

[Mito]

Even if you don't like flying on Spirit you should like them being in business. If they go under fare prices across the board will rise faster than ever.

[johnmayerislovee]

Spirit Airlines is the perfect example of you get what you pay for. If the passenger is willing to accept Spirit’s limited service model, then fly Spirit and save.

[kifley]

Spirit Airlines isn’t bad if you pay for your bags online while purchasing your ticket. They are terrible when your flight gets canceled because they don’t really help you unlike some other airlines. Plus, they don’t have as many flights as American, Delta, and United so if your flight gets canceled then you’re screwed.

[JHeck-ikys]

flown with them dozens of times, never been delayed for more than an hour, never had a flight cancelled, never had problems. I love Spirit.

[TonyNoCeilings]

I don't get why people in general hate Spirit, I have used them for multiple flights and never had more than a reasonable delay getting on or off on a few occasions.

[chasemoloney]

The FTC should’ve let JetBlue buy Spirit, I’d rather have a 6th major carrier that can turn a profit than a now bankrupt budget airline that isn’t sustainable

[Sdtere]

😂 absolutely love the lady employee who was clearly frustrated

[sportsMike]

Most of the issues are from people not reading their policies. I understand what I'm getting into if I took spirit. Basic transportation

[travelbug]

Spirit’s investors screwed up when they declined merging with Frontier. The a la cart pricing can get brutal, though I’ve never flown them. People may not like Spirit but if they leave the market, basic economy fares for price sensitive customers on legacy airlines will go up.

[Ktracho-ighb]

I’ve flown american first class and spirit economy, goinng on 14 years with spirit and hope they don’t go out of business. Have never had a problem with them and they have one of the youngest fleets in the industry… people will complain. My wallet is happy

[HKM-]

I've flown Spirit a few times, overall I think they offer a good product for the price. The new Go Comfy fare is a great option, I love having the extra space with no one in the center seat.

[CJ-fhxq]

I love Spirit. Took me and my parents all around the USA for a very fair price.

[danielkrall]

Spirit is useful if you use it correctly. For the quick trip where the flight is less than 2 hours and you are only bringing a backpack it is just fine and inexpensive. As soon as you use it for something else it is expensive and you're better off using one of the major carriers.

[CrnaDvojka]

Spirit is a low cost airline. Anyone complaining about them or similar airlines are too dumb to understand their rules

[thisIsFunnyLolz]

Spirit serves an important function in the market of providing lower cost alternatives that keep the big airlines more honest. You just have to know what you’re getting into and hope for the best. Customer service across industries has declined in recent years, soooo many chat bots that don’t solve anything so it’s not really that big of a difference in many cases

[TheReallDonaldTrump]

I will never stop flying with Spirit. I love my $90 or less round trips back home. The same 1.5hr flight is about $500-600 on Delta and about $400 on SW. Not going to happen. I'll take a 14hr bus ride before I pay those kinds of fares just to fly 1.5 hrs.

[Tommy-rfsw]

Going public and having to answer to shareholders basically ruins every business

[deandrebuggs]

I don’t give a damn about the customer service, especially when I know the representatives are getting yelled at and disrespected over stuff they have no control over so of course they’re going to eventually snap back…. is we flying safe or not? At this point, Spirit still the safest airline to fly and I value my life over anything

[zodd]

If you choose to fly Spirit Airlines, you made your choice. I dislike all this complaining when you know you were not going to pay a higher fee for a better airline. You get what you paid for plain and simple.