{"id":255645,"date":"2026-05-02T17:46:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T17:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/255645\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T17:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T17:46:18","slug":"spirit-airlines-winds-down-operations-leaving-tampa-travelers-scrambling-for-alternatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/255645\/","title":{"rendered":"Spirit Airlines winds down operations, leaving Tampa travelers scrambling for alternatives"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014\u00a0Spirit Airlines\u00a0said it is winding down operations, canceling flights and ending service after failing to stay afloat.<\/p>\n

The announcement came after last-minute efforts to save the budget carrier fell through.\u00a0President Donald Trump\u00a0said a final proposal had been presented, but any deal would have to make financial sense.<\/p>\n

\t
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Spirit said customers will be refunded, though it is unclear how long that process could take.<\/p>\n

At Tampa International Airport, travelers said they were caught off guard and are now working to rebook flights.<\/p>\n

A passenger heading out on a Spirit flight Friday afternoon said the news was disappointing, especially for travelers on a tight budget.<\/p>\n

\t
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\u201cSo personally I think it\u2019s sad because as a student, my budget is like small and Spirit Airlines is the cheapest airline I know,\u201d she said. \u201cSo for me it\u2019s sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another passenger said the loss of a low-cost option could make travel more difficult for people trying to save money.<\/p>\n

With Spirit out of the market, passengers said they are seeing fewer low-cost options and, in some cases, higher prices for last-minute bookings.<\/p>\n

Frontier Airlines\u00a0said it is offering discounted \u201crescue fares\u201d to help stranded travelers rebook flights.<\/p>\n

Passengers said they are hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst as they make new travel plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014\u00a0Spirit Airlines\u00a0said it is winding down operations, canceling flights and ending service after failing to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-255645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}