WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Spirit Airlines, an impish upstart that shook the industry with its irreverent ads and deep discount fares, announced Saturday that it has gone out of business after 34 years.
The ultra-low-cost airline that once operated hundreds of daily flights on its bright yellow planes and employed about 17,000 people said it had “started an orderly wind-down of our operations, effective immediately.”
The airline said on its website that all flights have been canceled and customer service is no longer available.
“We are proud of the impact of our ultra-low-cost model on the industry over the last 34 years and had hoped to serve our guests for many years to come,” the announcement said.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Saturday that Spirit had a reserve fund set up for customers who bought directly from the airline to get refunds. People who bought from third-party vendors such as travel agents would have to seek refunds from them. He had a stark message for people flying with Spirit.
“If you have a flight scheduled with Spirit Airlines, don’t show up at the airport. There will be no one here to assist you,” Duffy said.
He said United, Delta, JetBlue and Southwest were offering $200 one-way flights for people who could confirm that they had Spirit confirmation numbers and proof of purchase for a limited time. Duffy also said other airlines would help with Spirit employees who might be stranded and would offer them a preferential application process as they look for work.
Spirit said in a statement that it was working to get more than 1,300 crew members to their home bases and that the final Spirit flight landed early Saturday at Dallas Forth Worth International Airport from Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
The company advised customers that they could expect refunds but there would be no help in booking travel on other airlines.
‘They get you there’
Five Spirit flights were still showing as “on time” on Saturday morning on the departure board in Atlanta, one of the airline’s smaller stations.
A trickle of passengers who hadn’t heard the news were still showing up, including Joshua Sigler, who had bought a ticket Friday for a flight Saturday to Miami.
“I’m just going to go back home,” said Sigler, who didn’t try to take advantage of deals some other airlines were offering to displaced Spirit passengers.
He said he had gotten no communication from Spirit, which he had flown multiple times in the past. “They get you there,” he said of past flights. “It was cheap.”
Waking to the news
Former Spirit flight attendant Freddy Peterson was on a Spirit flight from Detroit that arrived in Newark, N.J., around 11 p.m. Friday. He said that despite rumors flying on social media Friday, things seemed kind of normal, with more than 200 passengers on the plane.
“All our aircraft were packed,” he said.
Peterson, 60, said he set his alarm clock for 3 a.m. Saturday to check the company website at the hour of the rumored shutdown.
“I said, OK, well, since all this going on, they said Spirit is supposed to close at 3, I’m going to bed. I set my alarm clock for 3 o’clock, went onto the website and it said, ‘Spirit flights have been canceled,’” Peterson said.
He said Delta Air Lines brought him and another flight attendant back to Atlanta on Saturday morning, with Peterson leaving from there to drive to his home in Shellman in southwest Georgia.
“I’ll probably do my boo-hoo crying and all that other stuff once I get in the car.”
Peterson said he had been a flight attendant with Spirit for 10 years and the company has “done wonders for me.” He said the airline’s reputation for bargain basement chaos was largely undeserved, but he did fault management for not communicating with the employees in the closing days, saying a promised employee town hall was canceled.
Bailout fizzles
The Trump administration had considered a government bailout for the cash-strapped business to keep it from going under, but a deal was not reached. Of the potential bailout, Duffy said Saturday, “We often times don’t have half a billion dollars laying around.”
President Trump had floated the idea of a bailout last week after the airline found itself in bankruptcy proceedings for the second time in less than two years, with jet fuel prices soaring because of the Iran war.
As late as Friday afternoon, Trump had said that “we’re looking at it” and had given the budget carrier a “final proposal” for a taxpayer-funded takeover.
Spirit has struggled financially since the COVID-19 pandemic, weighed down by rising operating costs and growing debt. By the time it filed for Chapter 11 protection in November 2024, Spirit had lost more than $2.5 billion since the start of 2020.
The budget carrier sought bankruptcy protection again in August 2025, when it reported having $8.1 billion in debts and $8.6 billion in assets, according to court filings.
White House blames Biden
The White House had blamed the Biden administration for Spirit’s tenuous financial situation. President Biden opposed a proposed merger between Spirit and JetBlue in 2023.
Supporters of a rescue including labor unions representing Spirit’s pilots, flight attendants and ramp workers said a collapse would put thousands of Americans out of work and hurt consumers by reducing airline competition and increasing airfares. About 17,000 jobs could be impacted, according to Spirit lawyer Marshall Huebner.
Budget-conscious and leisure travelers are likely to feel Spirit’s absence the most, especially in places where the airline has a big footprint such as Las Vegas and the Florida cities of Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.
The carrier flew about 1.7 million domestic passengers in February, roughly half a million fewer than during the same month a year earlier, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Spirit also has sharply reduced its capacity, with about half as many seats available this month than in May 2024.
Madhani, Yamat and Amy write for the Associated Press and reported from West Palm Beach, Las Vegas and Atlanta, respectively. AP writers Mike Catalini in Morrisville, Pa., and Josh Funk in Omaha contributed to this report.
The post Spirit Airlines goes out of business after 34 years, ending operations immediately appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
