Update: Spirit Airlines shut down at 3am ET on May 2, 2026.
Spirit Airlines is preparing to shut down after government bailout talks collapsed. The carrier spent weeks pitching the Trump administration on a $500 million loan, but its chief bondholders — Citadel and Ares Management among them — pushed back on a deal that would have subordinated their position.
This marks Spirit’s second bankruptcy in less than a year, following a February exit from its first Chapter 11, with high jet fuel costs triggered by the Iran war derailing its post-bankruptcy plan that had projected fuel at $2.24 per gallon.
JetBlue stands to benefit most from Spirit’s potential disappearance given heavy route overlap in Florida, particularly at Fort Lauderdale, where Spirit flew roughly 5.8 million seats in 2025 out of 20 million total. Frontier, Allegiant, and Breeze Airways are also positioned as winners, while Spirit’s roughly 100 A320-family aircraft, many of them leas