All flights have been canceled as Spirit halts operations, bringing a major U.S. budget airline to a sudden end after months of restructuring.
Budget carrier Spirit Airlines said Saturday it will halt all operations immediately, canceling all flights and beginning an orderly wind-down after a last-minute rescue plan failed to get traction.
“It is with great disappointment that on May 2, 2026, Spirit Airlines started an orderly wind-down of our operations,” the company said in an announcement, adding that all flights are canceled and customer service is being discontinued.
The Florida-based airline said passengers should not go to the airport and that refunds will be issued automatically for tickets purchased by card.
The shutdown follows months of restructuring efforts, as the company struggled with mounting financial pressures and a sharp rise in fuel costs that undermined its path out of bankruptcy.
“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,” Dave Davis, Spirit’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “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.”
President Donald Trump said Friday that the White House had presented a final proposal aimed at keeping the airline operating and preserving roughly 14,000 jobs, but indicated any intervention would proceed only if it met government terms.
“If we can help them, we will, but we have to come first,” Trump told reporters before departing for Florida. “If we could do it, we’d do it, but only if it’s a good deal.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on May 2 that Trump was like a “dog on a bone trying to figure out a way to keep Spirit afloat” and denied that the Iran war contributed to the airline’s collapse.
“Long before the war with Iran, multiple times, [Spirit] had filed for bankruptcy,” Duffy told reporters during a press conference.
“Their model wasn’t working. They couldn’t get the fiscal health. So this … this was not the impetus. The war was not the impetus for Spirit [shutting down].”
The airline, once responsible for about 5 percent of U.S. flights, is the first of its size to liquidate in roughly two decades.
By Tom Ozimek
