Spirit Airlines says it has nearly finished refunding customers after shuttering | US news
Spirit Airlines has nearly completed refunding customers for flights abruptly canceled over the weekend due to the company’s shutdown.
The budget airline left thousands of customers and staff in the lurch on Saturday after deciding to pull the plug on a business that had been struggling for years before a rise in jet fuel prices blew a new hole in its budget.
Spirit had planned nearly 4,000 flights through May 15. According to Reuters.
The airline has not made a profit since 2019, According to CNBC. The company attempted an unsuccessful restructuring in recent years. two bankruptcy filings. Spirit says the sharp rise in the cost of oil due to the US-Israeli war against Iran has dealt the airline a fatal blow he said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, despite the company’s best efforts, the recent material increase in oil prices and other pressures on the business have significantly impacted Spirit’s financial outlook,” the statement said. “With no additional funding available to the company, Spirit had no choice but to initiate this termination.”
But transport minister Sean Duffy blamed the airline’s failure on the Joe Biden administration. comments to the media on Saturday. The Biden administration’s justice department blocked a merger proposal that would have combined Spirit and JetBlue.
“A lot of people at the time were saying it was a disaster, that this merger should be allowed,” Duffy said. “And today it shows that it’s not better for travelers, it’s not better in terms of pricing, it’s not better in terms of competition, it’s actually worse.”
Duffy urged Spirit customers to stay home.
“If you have a scheduled flight with Spirit Airlines, do not go to the airport; there will be no one here to help you,” Duffy said. “What Spirit Airlines will do now is go through an orderly liquidation process. We’ll see how that plays out over the next few days.”
Conservative critics, including Duffy, noted: Elizabeth Warren’s commentsA Democratic senator from Massachusetts was praising the Biden administration for blocking the merger in 2024. Warren said at the time that the merger would lead to “fewer flights and higher fares.”
In response to criticism, Warren tweeted at X He added that Spirit collapsed due to the rise in oil prices and that the JetBlue merger “failed because a Ronald Reagan-appointed judge said the deal was illegal.”
“Republicans are desperate to shift blame from the high costs hitting families,” Warren said on Twitter.
