{"id":642597,"date":"2026-05-02T07:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T07:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/642597\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T07:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T07:53:10","slug":"spirit-is-halting-all-flights-as-of-early-saturday-customer-service-no-longer-available","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/642597\/","title":{"rendered":"Spirit is halting all flights as of early Saturday, customer service no longer available"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Spirit Airlines has started to shut down operations, cancelling flights and closing customer services, according to a statement on the website<\/a> dedicated to its failed bankruptcy proceedings.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt is with great disappointment that on May 2, 2026, Spirit Airlines started an orderly wind-down of our operations, effective immediately,\u201d the brief release said. \u201cAll flights have been cancelled, and customer service is no longer available,\u201d it read, addressing the low-cost airline\u2019s customers.\n <\/p>\n

\n The airline reminded passengers arriving at airports for a Spirit flight that it is \u201cunable to provide service,\u201d advising them to \u201clook to rebook your travel on a different airline.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Closing the brief official statement, released by 2 a.m. ET, the airline said: \u201cWe 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.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The shutdown comes after soaring jet fuel prices derailed Spirit\u2019s plans to emerge from its second bankruptcy. Efforts to reach a deal with the Trump administration on an 11th-hour rescue package that was also acceptable to a key group of creditors proved unsuccessful Friday.\n <\/p>\n

\n The decision will leave millions of passengers holding Spirit tickets for coming months scrambling to make other travel arrangements, and put 17,000 Spirit employees out of a job. Eliminating the airline\u2019s flights is also likely to raise fares across the entire US airline industry.\n <\/p>\n

\n An attorney for Spirit told a bankruptcy court last week that the airline was in \u201cvery advanced discussions\u201d with the administration on a rescue package.\n <\/p>\n

\n But a key group of creditors did not agree to that plan, according to a source familiar with negotiations. Those creditors balked at the package that reportedly would have given the government control of the overwhelming majority the airline\u2019s shares.\n <\/p>\n

\n Earlier in the day Friday, President Donald Trump seemed to back away from his earlier support of a rescue package for the airline, or possibly even a government purchase.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWell, we\u2019re looking at it \u2014 but if we can\u2019t make a good deal, no institution\u2019s been able to do it,\u201d Trump said on Friday. \u201cI\u2019d like to save the jobs, but we\u2019ll have an announcement sometime today. We gave them a final proposal.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n All air carriers have been struggling with higher jet fuel costs, which have nearly\u202fdoubled\u202fsince the start of the war in Iran. Jet fuel is the second greatest cost for airlines, behind only labor.\n <\/p>\n

\n To help compensate, airlines have been\u202fraising fares<\/a>\u202fand increasing fees, such as for\u202fchecked bags<\/a>. But fierce competition for travelers has kept them from passing along\u202fall of\u202fthe costs to customers.\u202fAnd discount carriers like Spirit have a harder time raising fares due to their dependence on bargain-hunting customers.\n <\/p>\n

\n Spirit had about 9,000 flights scheduled from May 2 through the end of the month, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Those flights have a total of 1.8 million seats. So that\u2019s an average of about 300 flights and 60,000 potential passengers a day affected in just the next month.\n <\/p>\n

\n In a separate note to its customers<\/a>, Spirit said that while it is not able to help rebook flights to another airline, it will \u201cautomatically process refunds for any flights purchased through Spirit with a credit or debit card to the original form of payment.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Passengers who booked flights via a travel agent \u201cshould contact the travel agent directly to request a refund,\u201d Spirit said. However, compensation for customers who booked flights using any other method, including a voucher, credit or Free Spirit points, \u201cwill be determined at a later date through the bankruptcy court process.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n That means those who paid cash, for instance, have now become Spirit\u2019s creditors and will have to wait to be reimbursed with\u202feveryone\u202fthe company owes money.\n <\/p>\n

\n About an hour before the official announcement, Spirit\u2019s employees were getting word of the loss of their jobs. The leadership of the Association of Flight Attendants at Spirit sent a message out to the union\u2019s 5,000 members at the airline about 1 a.m., stating: \u201cWe are delivering the hardest news of our lives that Spirit will permanently cease operations at 3:00 AM Eastern Time on May 2.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n For those passengers in the middle of a trip, they must now find a seat on another airline. Last-minute \u201cwalk-up\u201d fares are the most expensive in the industry.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cSpirit is unfortunately not able to reimburse Guests for incidental travel costs associated with cancelled trips. If you purchased travel insurance, check with your carrier to see if these expenses may be covered under your plan\u201d, the company said<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n While Trump last week signaled his approval, the\u202fidea of a bailout for a single airline sparked backlash from both the airline industry and among Republican members of Congress.\n <\/p>\n

\n Spirit ranked as the eighth-largest US airline in 2025 by the number of seats offered. The airline was a\u202fpioneer in offering ultra-low base fares in the US, charging\u202fextra for\u202fthings like carry-on bags. That model\u202fpushed fares lower,<\/a>\u202feven for passengers on other\u202fcarriers and\u202fprompted larger airlines to offer cheap \u201cbasic economy\u201d tickets.\n <\/p>\n

\n Fares across the industry have risen this year due to the spike in jet fuel prices. Removing the 2% of domestic US flights Spirit is scheduled to fly this summer will push fares up even higher.\n <\/p>\n

\n But Spirit has been unprofitable since travel plunged shortly after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, warning repeatedly in recent\u202fyears\u202fthere was \u201csubstantial doubt<\/a>\u201d over its ability to continue flying. Spirit has filed for bankruptcy\u202ftwice<\/a>, most recently in August 2025.\n <\/p>\n

\n Spirit announced it had reached a\u202fdeal with its creditors<\/a>\u202fin February to\u202femerge\u202ffrom its latest bankruptcy with less debt and the ability to keep flying. But three days later, the war in Iran started,\u202fchoking off about 20% of the world\u2019s oil supply and sending jet fuel prices soaring.\n <\/p>\n

\n Bankruptcies are common in the airline industry, which is\u202fa capital-intensive business. Companies deal with massive costs for\u202faircraft\u202fand labor, as well as the wild swings in the price of fuel and demand for travel. Even in the best of times, airlines can run on thin margins. Eight\u202fmajor US airlines have filed for bankruptcy over the past 25 years.\n <\/p>\n

\n In many cases, bankrupt airlines are\u202fpurchased\u202fby solvent rivals, which has led to widespread consolidation. Four major carriers \u2013 United, American, Delta and Southwest \u2013 now control about 80% of flights available to passengers.\n <\/p>\n

\n But an airline completely shutting down is far less common.\u202fSpirit\u2019s closure is the first shutdown of a significant US airline since\u202fMidway Airlines went out of business<\/a>\u202fimmediately\u202ffollowing the September 11, 2001 attacks.\n <\/p>\n

\n This is a developing story. It will be updated.\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN\u2019s Donald Judd, Ramishah Maruf and Ruben Correa contributed to this report.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spirit Airlines has started to shut down operations, cancelling flights and closing customer services, according to a statement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,26791],"class_list":["post-642597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-hnk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}