Summary
Spirit Airlines has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing mounting losses, debt, and the failure of its proposed $3.8 billion merger with JetBlue.
Operations, including ticket sales, will continue as normal, with the airline securing $300 million in financing and planning to exit bankruptcy by early 2025.
Spirit has also arranged a $350 million equity investment from bondholders.
Struggling since the pandemic, Spirit deferred $1.1 billion in debt, faced an engine recall, and announced cost-cutting measures, including job cuts and selling older planes.
17 Comments
Halosheep@lemm.ee · 35 pts · 1y
'Brand known for how terrible it is files for bankruptcy'
How surprising.
wjrii@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 1y
It's almost like the "better" airlines already know how much you can shit on the customer base and survive. Pretty much everybody I know who has ever taken a Spirit flight has told me they never want to do it again.
Alexstarfire@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 1y
I'm in the minority. I love Spirit. I don't appreciate the dark patterns when purchasing tickets, but that's it.
This is only for "short" domestic flights, <4 hours.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
Yeah, they were always great for me, likely do to shitty practices, but when it's a 17 hour drive home, and it only costs $42 for a ticket. I can get their cheaply easily. Not enough room, throw in another 40 and have a bigger seat up front that's reserved and not have to deal with that southwest BS of random seats. You can pay more, but I haven't needed to pay over $70 for a ticket traveling the short distances I need to go in the past 5-7 years.
For those not from around here my trip distance would be a little farther than London to Berlin.
Alexstarfire@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
SW switched seating, this year I think, to be the same as other airlines. It's not completely random anymore.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
That's good, when I flew to PHX for work earlier this year I specifically choose another airline even though they didn't have points just to avoid that. Probably a good move for them
atoro@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 1y
Spirit isn't that bad, as long as you know what you're getting into. Frontier, on the other hand...
werefreeatlast@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 1y
Plus they had to buy aluminum foil tape the other day to patch up the new speed holes in that one port o prince plane.
brlemworld@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
I want to catch a glimpse.
heavy@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 1y
I feel like it's probably better to have more competition in the space, but Spirit and Frontier are godawful.
HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club · 6 pts · 1y
The problem is that they are awful, but consumers are very price sensitive when they buy tickets. You get what you pay for.
pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online · 4 pts · 1y
We usually take a look at Spirit before booking flights, and with all of their add on fees it often ends up being more expensive.
HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club · 2 pts · 1y
Yeah, but a lot of that comes from the legacy airlines in the US becoming low cost carriers.
I won't be surprised when it happens to the EU when more flag carriers go bankrupt.
FelixCress@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
That's the spirit!
ohlaph@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
It was probably their malware infused website.
Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee · 1 pts · 1y
CaptainPedantic@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y
Spirit AeroSystems is not related to Spirit Airlines. Spirit AeroSystems is a Boeing contractor that makes fuselages.
Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee · 1 pts · 1y
Ah, my mistake. Thanks