{"id":255727,"date":"2026-05-02T19:17:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T19:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/255727\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T19:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T19:17:12","slug":"fl-based-budget-airline-ceases-operations-after-failed-federal-buyout-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/255727\/","title":{"rendered":"FL-based budget airline ceases operations after failed federal buyout"},"content":{"rendered":"

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Florida-based Spirit Airlines announced early Saturday morning its ceasing operations immediately after they failed to secure a $500 million federal bailout. <\/p>\n

All flights have been cancelled.<\/p>\n

Spirit posted a statement on its social media accounts around 4 a.m.<\/p>\n

“It is with great disappointment that on May 2, 2026, Spirit Airlines started an orderly wind-down of our operations, effective immediately,” the statement noted<\/a>. “To our Guests: all flights have been cancelled, and customer service is no longer available. We 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.”<\/p>\n

The budget airline said customer service is no longer available and they’re not able to help rebook flights. However, Spirit said it will automatically process refunds for any flight that was purchased through the airline with a credit or debit card.<\/p>\n

For questions regarding its shutdown, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration had considered a government bailout for the cash-strapped business to keep it from going under, but a deal was not reached.<\/p>\n

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that travelers booked on Spirit flights could access special prices on a group of other airlines for a limited time, and said other carriers would help Spirit pilots and flight attendants return to their home cities. <\/p>\n

In a statement, Duffy said travelers could check with their credit card company or travel insurance policy about refunds.<\/p>\n

Trump had floated the idea of a bailout last week after the airline found itself in bankruptcy proceedings for the second time in less than two years, with jet fuel prices soaring because of the Iran war.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpirit was in dire straits long before the war with Iran,\u201d Duffy said during a news conference on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Duffy also blamed former President Joe Biden and his administration for the shutdown.<\/p>\n

“There was a proposed merger between JetBlue and Spirit, and Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, along with the Biden DOJ, decided that they did not want that merger to take place. And at the time, the Biden and Buttigieg DOJ bragged and said as they canceled the option for this merger, that this was a victory for US travelers who deserve lower prices and better choices,” Duffy said.”And this today would indicate this is not better for travelers, this is not better for pricing, this is not better for competition, actually it’s worse. We had an airline go down because the markets were trying to allow two airlines to merge, make them stronger, and offer more competition for the American consumer,” he added.<\/p>\n

This all comes after Spirit Airlines filed twice for bankruptcy since 2024.<\/p>\n

Spirit flew to more than 40 cities in the U.S., with a main hub at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL).<\/p>\n

Several Spirit flights were already been cancelled out of FLL and Miami International Airport as of Saturday morning. So far, there have been no Spirit flights scheduled out of Palm Beach International.<\/p>\n

____________________<\/p>\n

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The National News Desk’s Jessica A. Botelho and The Associated Press contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Florida-based Spirit Airlines announced early Saturday morning its ceasing operations immediately after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-255727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255727","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=255727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}