Spirit Airlines begins to wind down its operations in an orderly manner | News
Spirit Aviation Holdings, Inc., parent company of Spirit Airlines, LLC (“Spirit” or the “Company”), today announced with regret that the Company has commenced an orderly wind-down of operations, effective immediately. All Spirit flights have been canceled and Spirit guests are not allowed to go to the airport.
The wind-down follows the company’s extensive and comprehensive efforts to restructure the business and pursue transactions to strengthen Spirit’s financial position and create a sustainable path forward. Unfortunately, despite the company’s best efforts, the recent significant increase in oil prices and other pressures on the company have significantly affected Spirit’s financial prospects. With no additional financing available to the company, Spirit had no choice but to begin this phase-out.
“For more than 30 years, Spirit Airlines has been a pioneer in making travel more accessible and bringing people together while advancing affordability across the industry,” said Dave Davis, President and Chief Executive Officer of Spirit. “In March 2026, we reached an agreement with our bondholders on a restructuring plan that would have enabled us to become a forward-looking company. However, the sudden and sustained increase in fuel prices in recent weeks has ultimately left us with no other alternative than to pursue an orderly wind-down of the company. Sustaining the company required hundreds of millions of additional dollars of liquidity that Spirit simply does not have and could not obtain. This is hugely disappointing and not the outcome any of us wanted.”
“I want to thank the administration, especially Secretary Howard Lutnick and the U.S. Department of Commerce, for their extraordinary efforts to preserve jobs and services across the country, along with the U.S. Department of Transportation for their help to minimize disruption to our guests in the days and weeks ahead,” Davis continued. “Many stakeholders have stepped up to support Spirit through our restructuring. We are grateful to our union partners, aircraft lessors, other business partners and our financial stakeholders, including Citadel, Cyrus Capital and Ares Management Corp, for working with us on tangible solutions to restructure our business.”
“Above all, we are grateful to our relentless Spirit team for their tremendous efforts during our restructuring,” Davis added. “They have worked tirelessly to provide a safe, affordable and award-winning option for the traveling public.”
Spirit will automatically process refunds for flights purchased through Spirit using a credit or debit card using the original payment method. Guests who booked flights through a travel agent must contact the travel agent directly to request a refund. Compensation for guests who booked flights using another method, including a voucher, credit or Free Spirit points, will be determined at a later date through the bankruptcy process. Guests can visit https://spiritrestructuring.com to learn more about Spirit’s wind-down process.
