Buh-bye Spirit Airlines
If you booked Spirit for your next Orlando theme park vacation, it's time to rebook. Multiple media reports say that the budget airline is about to cease operations, perhaps within the next day.
Good luck to all travelers out there.
Replies (9)
Sad situation. All of my trips to DFW to visit SFOT were on Spirit and all went off without a hitch. Plus I love those yellow planes. I drive a lot of people to the airport and enjoy watching planes come in and land. Spirit and Southwest were easily identifiable because of the colors.
I hate that we are down to three colors for new cars (white, black, grey), all fast food places look like grey boxes and airplane liveries now seem designed to lull you to sleep rather than excite you for a trip.
Bonnie - I too enjoy the Airport
(I don't want to mention that maybe, perhaps I worked on a flight deck for a few years because some folks here get all Mad if you have actually served)...
But Yes I sometimes drive to the airport and watch the beautiful air planes land and take off...
(Damn Biden - It's all his fault, gas is up, travel is down) HAHAHAaHH
Spirit was a very polarizing business, and is probably one of the reasons legacy carriers felt that they could generate additional revenue from checked bags, selecting seats, food/snacks/drinks, and other add-ons. However, if you just needed to get from point A to point B for the cheapest possible price, they were almost always the choice. We flew them just once to Boston, and after that one experience I understood why they were so polarizing. If you were a seasoned traveler and understand that you were getting only what you were paying for, Spirit was a perfectly fine options, but if you didn't know they would measure/weigh your roll-aboard or purse/backpack, or just didn't know how nitpicky they could be, you would probably vow to never fly with them again after one bad experience.
I really don't understand why the JetBlue/Spirit merger was denied, but I do know that the loss of a value-airline (along with Southwest acting more and more like a "legacy" carrier now), air travel in the US is continuing its steep decline following COVID.
JetBlue apparently has a ridiculous debt burden, so allowing the merger probably would not have prevented the death of the combined airline. But keeping them apart might allow one to survive following the other's demise, as it might pick up extra business. At least, that seems to be what the argument was. We will see how JetBlue does now.
Can you remember all the Other Airlines that are now gone due to failure and or mergers...
Off the top of my head:
Piedmont - US Air - Continental - North West - Transamerican airlines
(Trump Air - HAHAHAHAAHA)
>> And that brings us to Donald Trump,
No mention of Trump Shuttle?
>> He's also taking this opportunity to blame Biden for Spirit going bust because his FTC didn't approve a merger between Spirit and Jetblue
Which probably would have sunk JetBlue. They’re also not in great shape, and Spirit would have brought them down with them.
The Jetblue-Spirit merger was turned down by the Biden FTC because it was one of his campaign promises to crack down on large corporate mergers that would raise prices, and Jetblue-Spirit's own studies that they turned over to the FTC showed that they were going to raise prices after the merger.
As far as Spirit being polarizing goes: I flew Spirit pretty frequently for many years. From when I first flew with them up until 2017 or so I thought it wasn't that bad. While it was certainly "no frills" and bare bones, I didn't think that was much different from any other airline, who all charge for bags and seat assignments and have generally rude/apathetic staff and anti-consumer policies. But Spirit got me from A to B safely and on time so I didn't see any reason not to fly with them with such cheaper prices.
However, around 2017 or so, Spirit seemed to start going downhill and from then on my flights seemed to always have problems. Up until then I didn't really have a problem with delays. The final straw for me was in 2021 when I flew from Chicago to Orlando and the flight was 2.5 hours, but then after landing we were on the tarmac in Orlando for another 2.5 hours while they worked through various issues. At that point I swore Spirit off forever.
I think what happened was when the main carriers started copying their business model they had a hard time figuring out what to do and just started cutting even more to the point where the airline sucked. By the time the pandemic came around the company was basically a total dumpster fire and they really had no chance from that point on.
There's an old saying in the investing world: "How do you become a millionaire? Be a billionaire and buy an airline."
And that brings us to Donald Trump, who of course had to insert himself into this and state multiple times now wants the federal government to spend $500 million taxpayer dollars to buy a 90% equity stake in Spirit. He's also taking this opportunity to blame Biden for Spirit going bust because his FTC didn't approve a merger between Spirit and Jetblue (when in reality those assets would be sold to other airlines regardless of whether there is a taxpayer buyout, all he would be doing is propping up a zombie company).
It seems like Spirit's creditors, particularly Ken Griffin at Citadel, are opposed to this and want Spirit to proceed with the liquidation.