Spirit Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last Friday, its second filing in under a year. The Florida-based budget carrier, which just emerged from bankruptcy in March, continues facing high costs and declining domestic demand.
As part of its strategic overhaul—the second since November 2024—the airline is dropping underperforming routes and doubling down on its money-making strongholds: Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Detroit.
Accordingly, Spirit is pulling out of 11 cities come October 2nd: Albuquerque, Birmingham, Boise, Chattanooga, Oakland, Columbia (SC), Portland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, and San Jose (CA). In addition, Spirit has scrapped its Oct. 16 debut in Macon, GA.
However, in a statement on the airline’s website, Spirit confirms that it will be maintaining normal operations, honoring all customer commitments, employee compensation and certain critical pre-filing vendor payments. Spirit will also pay for post-filing goods and services as usual.
“We are pleased to have reached this first milestone in our restructuring process, which will support normal operations as we take decisive action to ensure that Spirit continues delivering the best value in the sky for years to come,” said Dave Davis, President and CEO in a statement. “With these approvals in place and access to the many new tools now available to us, we can continue to implement our transformation to build a stronger foundation and future for Spirit.”
The Company has created a dedicated website for stakeholders to learn about its restructuring process at www.spiritrestructuring.com. Additional information about the Company’s Chapter 11 case, including access to Court filings and other documents related to the restructuring process, is available at https://dm.epiq11.com/SpiritAirlines.
Rival Airlines Swoop In
Spirit’s bankruptcy filing follows years of financial struggles: a blocked JetBlue merger, a failed premium seating rebrand, and increased competition from Frontier Airlines‘ expansion into competing routes.
Meanwhile, rival airlines didn’t waste a moment following the Chapter 11 filing, swooping in with fresh lineups of domestic and international routes to claim Spirit’s suddenly available market share. United Airlines, for one, announced plans to launch flights to 15 cities starting Jan. 6—connecting major hubs like Houston and Chicago with convention hotspots including Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Las Vegas.
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