END OF AN ERA FOR COMMERCIAL AVIATION 🛬
Spirit Airlines, known for its boisterous yellow planes and inexpensive, bare bones fares that allowed you to hop on flights on a whim, has shut down its operations.
Early Saturday morning, Spirit’s last flight, NK1833, landed at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) from Detroit, marking the end of the era for budget airlines.
“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,” Dave Davis, Spirit’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
Praying for the 17,000 people who lost their jobs this morning at Spirit Airlines.
Praying for the 217,000 people laid off in Q1.
Praying for the 90,000 tech workers impacted by "AI-driven" layoffs.
Praying for the 7.2 million people currently unemployed.
Behind every number is a person. A family. A story.
If you are currently employed, don’t take it for granted.
If you have the capacity, check on your people. Extend grace. Share opportunities.
You never know the battles that someone is silently fighting.
Praying for the 217,000 people laid off in Q1.
Praying for the 90,000 tech workers impacted by "AI-driven" layoffs.
Praying for the 7.2 million people currently unemployed.
Behind every number is a person. A family. A story.
If you are currently employed, don’t take it for granted.
If you have the capacity, check on your people. Extend grace. Share opportunities.
You never know the battles that someone is silently fighting.
Today is a tough day for aviation.
The news about Spirit Airlines marks the end of an airline, but more importantly, it impacts thousands of hard-working employees - pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, airport staff, corporate teams - who showed up every day to move this industry forward.
Aviation can feel massive from the outside, but inside it’s a small, tight‑knit community. We cross paths more often than we realize. We compete hard, but we also know how deeply connected our work - and our people - really are. We look out for each other in times of need.
To the Spirit team: you mattered. Your work mattered. And you’re not invisible to the rest of us who understand what it takes to make an airline run.
To my colleagues across the industry: now is the moment to look out for each other. Share openings. Make introductions. Offer a resume review, a conversation, or simply encouragement. A small gesture can land in a big way when someone’s world has just shifted.
The news about Spirit Airlines marks the end of an airline, but more importantly, it impacts thousands of hard-working employees - pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, airport staff, corporate teams - who showed up every day to move this industry forward.
Aviation can feel massive from the outside, but inside it’s a small, tight‑knit community. We cross paths more often than we realize. We compete hard, but we also know how deeply connected our work - and our people - really are. We look out for each other in times of need.
To the Spirit team: you mattered. Your work mattered. And you’re not invisible to the rest of us who understand what it takes to make an airline run.
To my colleagues across the industry: now is the moment to look out for each other. Share openings. Make introductions. Offer a resume review, a conversation, or simply encouragement. A small gesture can land in a big way when someone’s world has just shifted.
Whenever someone asked me about flying Spirit Airlines, I usually gave an answer that surprised them: It’s perfectly fine.
Not for everyone, of course. But for budget-conscious travelers heading to Florida, Las Vegas, or the Caribbean, it was a solid, affordable option—as long as you knew exactly what you were signing up for. Yes, that meant fees for carry-ons, soft drinks, and coffee. It meant seats that didn’t recline and a reputation for operational hiccups. But in an industry landscape crowded with Spirit detractors and airline elitists, I always appreciated the role the carrier played. And I’m genuinely sorry to see it disappear.
For countless travelers on a tight budget, Spirit—like fellow low-cost carrier Frontier—was the difference between taking a vacation and staying put. I never claimed it was my go-to airline, but over the years I’ve snagged plenty of deals. When family or friends asked for advice, I rarely steered them away, unless they were traveling for an unmissable event. As a journalist, I covered Spirit like any other carrier, flying its routes and testing its service for readers at three different news organizations.
I even admired Spirit’s push into premium travel. By bundling its popular Big Front Seat with perks like free checked bags, priority boarding, and Wi-Fi, the airline offered a taste of front-of-cabin comfort at a fraction of the usual cost. It was a smart move, and I found myself recommending it more often than I expected.
But you didn’t even have to fly Spirit to benefit from its presence. The mere threat of its dirt-cheap fares forced legacy carriers to match prices, often by rolling out their own bare-bones basic economy tickets. Now that Spirit is gone, those rock-bottom fares will quickly vanish. We’re already seeing the impact on routes Spirit abandoned during its second bankruptcy, including Phoenix, my home airport. It’s no secret why major airlines quietly—or in United’s case, not so quietly—opposed a government bailout. Fewer discounters mean more pricing power for the rest.
No one should be celebrating this collapse. Thousands of dedicated employees just lost their livelihoods. And let’s retire the social-media jokes about “Spirit refugees” suddenly showing up on premium carriers. That kind of snark misses the point.
To be fair, Spirit brought a lot of its own criticism down. Its fee structure often felt punitive, with gate agents reportedly incentivized to charge for overweight or oversized bags. For years, the airline’s signature onboard drink was a BuzzBallz—a fitting, if cheeky, symbol of its no-frills ethos. Then there was the operational reliability. I spent five sweltering summer days at Fort Lauderdale, Spirit’s hub, chronicling its August 2021 meltdown. At the peak, the airline canceled up to 60% of its flights, stranding thousands who ended up camping in terminals. Less than a year later, right as merger talks with JetBlue began, another wave of cancellations ruined countless spring break trips. My niece was caught in that chaos and swore off Spirit for good.
Spirit never won customer service awards, and it consistently lagged in industry rankings. But things were finally turning around. Despite its second bankruptcy filing in a year, the airline showed real operational progress. In our January 2025 scorecard, Spirit finished fifth out of nine carriers—up from eighth in 2024, making it the most improved airline overall. It also jumped from seventh to fourth in on-time arrivals.
There will be no Spirit in next year’s rankings. And that’s a real loss for travelers, competition, and the industry alike.