\n\tAt three in the morning Saturday, May 2, the ever-contracting, ever-enervating airline industry lost one of its most mocked, yet oddly reliable players: Spirit Airlines. The budget company known for its bright yellow planes, cheap tickets, and stripped-down services was officially grounded after years of financial difficulties, including two bankruptcies in 2024 and 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tSpirit\u2019s demise raises plenty of questions and concerns for an industry dominated by an increasingly small number of major players. And it comes at a moment when the war in Iran is causing fuel prices to spike, making already pricey plane tickets even more expensive<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tBut, let\u2019s be real: You\u2019re not here for deep dives into the ongoing financial and supply chain ramifications of global conflict, the sudden loss of approximately 17,000 part-time and full-time jobs, waves of travel disruptions, decades of airline industry deregulation, or the minutia of antitrust law and enforcement. You\u2019re here to distract yourself from all that with memes<\/a> \u2014 and brother, the memes have been bountiful!\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThere\u2019s probably no better place to start than the numerous<\/a> photoshop jobs that showed Spirit planes taken over by the ultimate symbol of retail demise: Signage for Spirit Halloween.<\/p>\n \n\tSimilarly, numerous people joked about picking up<\/a> out-of-service<\/a> jets at bargain prices. \u201cJust bought this bad boy on Temu,\u201d one X<\/a> user joked alongside a photo of a Spirit plane parked in a driveway.<\/p>\n \n\tSomeone even cooked up<\/a> a whole fake Facebook Marketplace ad for a 2017 Spirit Airlines Airbus A320, asking price $22,500. Among the listed \u201cpros\u201d: \u201cBright yellow so you\u2019ll never lose it in a parking lot\u201d and \u201coverhead storage for days.\u201d Cons, however, included \u201cslightly wider than a standard garage\u201d and \u201cmay require a runway.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cRuns and drives great,\u201d the listing added. \u201cCold A\/C. No lowballers, I know what I have.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tElsewhere, a content creator who goes by @6blessed__ and also appears to be an actual employee at the airport in Dallas-Fort Worth, shared a tribute video featuring him and his co-workers. The clip included footage of the employees poignantly waving goodbye to a Spirit jet from the tarmac, with one even dropping to his knees to hug the plane. All of it was, of course, set to the somber sounds of Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth\u2019s \u201cSee You Again.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n \n\tAnd the content creator Jenna Lu<\/a> recorded a video dubbed \u201cMe at the funeral for Spirit Airlines,\u201d which she shot as if she was speaking to the airline at an open-casket funeral. In the clip, Lu jokingly recalled being asked to pay $60 to check a backpack that just barely exceeded Spirit\u2019s extremely exacting carry-on dimensions.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s kind of ironic, isn\u2019t it? Because, like, your name is Spirit and now you are a Spirit,\u201d Lu joked. \u201cGone, but unfortunately, not easily forgotten!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n \n\tSome of the funniest videos, however, came from an account called @not_spiritairlines \u2014 a self-described \u201cfan page\u201d that was actually a real marketing ploy from Spirit, launched in the final months of its existence. (Seriously, the account went live in March. Rachel Karten, who writes a Substack on the social media landscape, interviewed<\/a> the agency behind the account, Cousin Labs, last month.)<\/p>\n \n\tOne of the final posts from @not_spiritairlines featured fake employees honoring the last Spirit flight by performing Hamilton<\/a> songs in the aisles. Another found a pilot holding out an iPad as passengers deplaned trying to squeeze out a few last pennies by asking for tips.\u00a0<\/p>\n