This one's for Spirit, the airline that everyone loved to hate. Spirit announced shortly after 2 a.m. ET that it would begin winding down all operations, canceling its remaining flights. Our hearts go out to all the employees affected by Spirit's shutdown and to those who worked at the airline until the very last minute despite the headlines. And we'll miss seeing those flying bananas in the sky.
Spirit's demise had been long expected as talks of a government bailout failed to materialize. Chief bondholders pushed back on the terms of the deal with government because it would put them in a weaker financial position. Ultimately, Spirit did not have the cash to keep going and a liquidation became the only option.
Despite, everyone's love-hate relationship with Spirit, the carrier permanently altered the travel landscape in the U.S. by making air travel more affordable for many more people. Under the leadership of CEO Ben Baldanza, Spirit pioneered the modern ultra-low-cost model in the U.S. — dirt cheap base fares and ancillary fees for just about everything else. It also was known for its cheeky advertising in the 2000s. Generally, everyone benefitted from Spirit's presence. Whenever Spirit entered a market, it applied downward pressure to fares.
Without Spirit, economy fares will inevitably be on the rise. It's also unclear what Spirit's demise might mean for other low-cost carriers like JetBlue and Frontier, both of which have been in the red. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Spirit CEO Dave Davis said he didn't believe Spirit was the only airline in trouble.
"Everybody is burning cash — we just had a smaller pile to start with," Davis said in the interview. "They're not that far behind us in the race."
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SKIFT PODCAST NETWORK
Yesterday afternoon when Spirit Airlines had just about reached its end, I joined my colleagues Seth Borko and Jay Shabat on LinkedIn Live to break down what Spirit’s end means for the industry and the ultra low-cost sector.
You can watch the full session on Skift.
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