Officials from Nashville International Airport are urging Spirit Airlines passengers to contact other air carriers to explore rebooking options after the discount carrier abruptly ended operations May 2.
Photo: Spirit
Thousands of travelers were left stranded across the country as Spirit cancelled all flights and ended customer service.
Prior to its closure, Spirit operated 11 flights weekly from Nashville’s BNA airport to Orlando and 14 weekly flights from Nashville to Fort Lauderdale.
“We are deeply saddened by the news that our airline partner, Spirit Airlines, is ceasing all operations and canceling all flights,” Nashville International Airport posted on its official Facebook page Saturday. “Per the airline, guests with previously confirmed Spirit tickets should not come to the airport.”
Spirit announced an “orderly wind-down of operations” on Saturday and cited a rise in fuel prices as what ultimately left the company with no other alternative but to shutter operations.
“In March 2026, we reached an agreement with our bondholders on a restructuring plan that would have allowed us to emerge as a go-forward business,” Dave Davis, Spirit’s president and CEO, said in the release. “However, the sudden and sustained rise in fuel prices in recent weeks ultimately has left us with no alternative but to pursue an orderly wind-down of the company. Sustaining the business required hundreds of millions of additional dollars of liquidity that Spirit simply does not have and could not procure. This is tremendously disappointing and not the outcome any of us wanted.”
Other airline carriers quickly stepped in to fill the gap left by Spirit as passengers scrambled to find alternatives.
The New York-based carrier JetBlue will add 11 new routes to Fort Lauderdale in July, including a flight from BNA that will operate three times a day beginning July 9.
Avelo Airlines on Monday offered alternatives for 29 routes previously flown by Spirit, along with discounted fares for Spirit customers, while Frontier Airlines announced systemwide ”rescue fare discounts.”
Spirit began operations at BNA in October 2019, according to airport officials.
Tennessee aviation workers are among the 17,000 employees who lost jobs in the Spirit collapse; however, the exact number is unclear.