Spirit Airlines shut down its operations on Saturday after a final bid from the government to bail out the airline fell through.
In an announcement at 2:23 a.m., just ahead of the 3 a.m. deadline to reach another deal, the airline said it would begin an “orderly wind-down of operations, effective immediately.” All flights were cancelled, and the airline notified customers that customer service would not be available. The airline blamed rising oil prices for the business’s unsalvageable position.
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“For more than 30 years, Spirit Airlines has played a pioneering role in making travel more accessible and bringing people together while driving affordability across the industry,” Spirit President and CEO Dave Davis said in a statement. “In March 2026, we reached an agreement with our bondholders on a restructuring plan that would have allowed us to emerge as a go-forward business.”
“However, the sudden and sustained rise in fuel prices in recent weeks ultimately has left us with no alternative but to pursue an orderly wind-down of the Company,” he added. “Sustaining the business required hundreds of millions of additional dollars of liquidity that Spirit simply does not have and could not procure. This is tremendously disappointing and not the outcome any of us wanted.”
He gave special thanks to the Trump administration for its “extraordinary efforts to try to preserve jobs and service across the country,” and for assisting customers who had their flights cancelled.
Other airlines scrambled to help the legion of disappointed customers, including United and Frontier. American Airlines said it “immediately implemented fare caps on Main Cabin tickets for Spirit routes where we also offer nonstop service and will continue to support as many customers as possible.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced several measures to assist Spirit customers and employees, including capped ticket prices for rebooking and travel assistance for laid-off employees. In a statement, he blamed the Biden administration for the chaos.
“Yet another mess the traveling public has to inherit thanks to the radical policies of Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg,” he said. “In blocking the Jetblue/Spirit merger in 2024, they turned their backs on the American consumer and our great aviation workforce.”
“Regardless of how we got here, the Trump Administration is committed to taking care of you and your family when you fly,” Duffy added. “In a matter of hours, we’ve activated our airline partners to ensure passengers are not stranded, communities maintain route access, fares do not skyrocket, and Spirit’s workforce is connected to new job opportunities.”
The low-cost airline had been in a financial crisis since March 2024, when a federal judge blocked its proposed $3.8 billion merger with JetBlue Airways on antitrust grounds. It filed for bankruptcy in November of that year, and again in August 2025.
AIRLINES STAND BY TO HELP SPIRIT CUSTOMERS WITH OPERATIONS SET TO CEASE AT 3 AM
The Trump administration made a final attempt to bail the airline out in recent weeks, but the deal fell through earlier this week.
Former customers took to social media to mourn or celebrate the airline’s death. Hostile former customers recalled poor customer service and flight experiences, while the more charitable lamented that the affordable airline could no longer offer a trade-off of service for a better price.
