Political blame game begins and passengers left adrift after Spirit ceases operations | Airline industry

U.S. airlines and government officials scrambled Saturday to deal with stranded passengers and struggling employees after discount carrier Spirit Airlines abruptly halted operations, setting off a political and business blame game over the low-cost carrier’s collapse.

“If you have a scheduled flight with Spirit Airlines, do not go to the airport; there will be no one there to help you,” US transportation secretary Sean Duffy warned at a press conference after announcing measures for customers who booked with the Florida-based company to get refunds or find discounted flights on other airlines.

Spirit’s airport check-in desks remained empty across the country on Saturday after the company collapsed in the early hours, announcing on its website that after 34 years of flying it was “beginning an orderly cessation of our operations, effective immediately.”

Overnight at Orlando international airport, the digital departure screen sign was filled with bright red notifications of canceled Spirit flights.

After the last flight touched down in Dallas, Texas, after midnight and Spirit’s management announced it was the last after government rescue talks failed, there were no more Spirit planes in the air, with their distinctive bright yellow paint job.

Dave Davis, Spirit’s president and CEO, said: Wall StreetJournal He said that the airline has no intention of leaving passengers with reservations in a difficult situation.

“We deliberately didn’t sell tickets thinking we wouldn’t be here,” he said. “We thought we would get the liquidity we needed.”

But the plans were disrupted. Traveler Angela Moreno he told NBC News He said he was booked to fly from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Nashville, Tennessee, for a wedding.

“The whole family is going there from different states, so it’s very shocking,” he told the TV news outlet. “As of now, there are many people who will not be able to attend the wedding.” He said it was unlikely he would be able to achieve that as tickets on rival airlines cost $600, adding: “Hopefully it will be the best for people who really need this flight.”

Many people posted nostalgic posts on social media platforms, where travelers often provide information about delayed or canceled flights.

“Goodbye SpiritAirlines. We at ‘D’ (Detroit), or formerly known as #DTW’s Second Hub, will miss you,” @IUTruthtellers2 said on X. Others posted nostalgic stories and added “RIP.”

“These were really one of the last cheap ‘get me there as fast and cheap as possible’ options,” Reddit user AioliUpset7805 wrote in a thread, adding: “I’ll miss them.”

A political blame game broke out. Duffy said the war in Iran, which nearly doubled the price of jet fuel, was not to blame for Spirit’s collapse and that the company “was in dire straits long before the war with Iran.”

“They filed for bankruptcy many times. Their model wasn’t working,” he added. “They couldn’t maintain financial health.”

Republicans have pointed fingers at the Biden administration, which opposed the $3.8 billion sale of Spirit to JetBlue, citing the risk of higher airfares, and a federal court blocked that takeover in 2024.

“Biden took the unprecedented step of using the Department of Transportation AND the Department of Justice to block the merger of JetBlue and floundering Spirit,” said Republican Kentucky representative Thomas Massie. Published on X. “This blockage and high fuel prices led to the demise of Spirit.”

Democratic US senator Elizabeth Warren responded: “The rise in fuel prices due to Trump’s war is the nail in the coffin of Spirit airline, which has gone bankrupt twice… Republicans are desperate to take responsibility for the high costs that are hitting families.”

HE Publish on X He also said: “FWIW [for what it’s worth]The JetBlue merger failed because a judge appointed by Ronald Reagan said the deal was illegal.

Duffy, meanwhile, belittled Democrats who hailed the treaty’s interventions as “a victory for US travelers.”

“Thank you to a Democrat.” Duffy X also shared this. “Joe Biden and [then transportation secretary] Pete Buttigieg bragged about blocking the JetBlue-Spirit merger… the very deal that could have saved Spirit Airlines. The result: less competition, customers struggling, employees losing their jobs. You can’t make up for these things.

Talks to save the company stalled last week when creditors including Ken Griffin’s Citadel LLC, Ares Management Corp and Cyrus Capital opposed the government’s plan to buy 90% of the company in exchange for a $500 million bailout. CBS News reported.

The lenders made a counter-offer but no deal was reached. Creditors said in a letter seen by the New York Times that they did not understand how the airline could survive and called on the board to shut down the company.

Duffy said on Saturday there was potential for a deal with the government but added “it has to be a good deal” and that the failure of talks was down to “creditor issues”.

“They still have the final say on whether they want to make a deal with the government,” Duffy said. “But at the same time, from the government’s perspective, most of the time we don’t have half a billion dollars in a reserve account that we can put aside to bail out an airline. So there was some creative thinking about how that could happen. Those two things never happened.”

Spirit has operated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean after being founded in Detroit in 1983 as Charter One Airlines.

The historic Marine Air Terminal at LaGuardia Airport was Spirit’s New York headquarters, and on Saturday the small art deco building turned into a ghost town. A notice at the gate stated that the airline was no longer operating and that passengers who had arrived that morning hoping to catch the last flight were turned away.

“How many million families [there are] Reddit user BigBubby305 added that the price difference between Spirit and carriers like Delta and American Airlines is sometimes more than $1,000 for a set of tickets for families.

A Reddit user from Las Vegas who said they were a Spirit pilot shared: “I’ve always taken great pride in knowing that we save people money and allow those who couldn’t otherwise afford to travel… Being shut down forever tonight has been one of the saddest experiences of my life.”

Spirit had nearly 4,000 domestic flights scheduled through May 15, according to aviation data analytics firm Cirium.

Reuters contributed reporting